I. 



HISTOR Y PURPOSE, METHODS, DIFFICULTIES 



MOME glASSES 

i AND 

The Mome Departmejmt 

OF THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL 



M.C.Hazard Ph.D. 




Class _„:&^Li^, 

Book jMa^ 

GopightN" Lilil^ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE INTERNATIONAL 
HOME DEPARTMENT ASSOCIATION 



PRESIDENT 
W. A. Duncan, ph.d., Boston, Mass., or Syracuse, N. Y. 

EDITOR 
M. C. Hazard, ph.d., Boston, Mass. 

SECRETARY 
W. H. Hall, West Hartford, Conn. 

VICE-PRESIDENTS 

Bishop J. H. Vincent, d.d. Indianapolis, Ind. 
J. B. Paton, LL.D., Nottingham, England. 
A. W. Clarke, d.d., Prague, Austria. 
Chas. Waters, Esq., London, England. 
F. F. Belsey, Esq., London, England. 
J. A. Worden, d.d., Philadelphia, Pa. 
Alfred Day, Syracuse, N. Y. 

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 

A. E. Dunning, d.d., Boston, Mass. 
J. L. Hurlbut, D.D., East Orange, N. J. 
C. R. Blackall, d.d., Philadelphia, Pa. 
A. F. Schauffler, d.d., New York, N.Y. 
Geo. M. Boynton, d.d., Boston, Mass. 

SECRETARIES 

N. B. Broughton, Raleigh, N.C. 

W. R. Sutherland, Yorkton, Assiniboia, Canada. 

W. W. Hall, New York City. 

Geo. R. Merrill, d.d., Minneapolis, Minn. 

J. S. Davis, Albany, Georgia. 

E. K. Warren, Three Oaks, Mich. 
S. H. Williams, Glastonbury, Ct. 
W. B. Jacobs, Chicago, 111. 

W. C. Hall, Indianapolis, Ind. 
W. J. Semelroth, Winona Lake, Ind. 
J. Donald Fraser, Montreal, Que. 
Joseph Clark, Columbus, Ohio. 
J. W. Rayhill, Utica, N. Y. 
Hugh Cork, Philadelphia, Pa. 

F. D. Price, Toronto, Canada. 
C. D. Meigs, Dallas, Texas. 

C. R. Fisher, San Francisco, Cal. 



HOME CLASSES 



HOME DEPARTMENT 



SUNDAY-SCftOOL 



History, Purpose, Plan, Organization, Methods, Requisites 
AND Difficulties 



V < BY 
m/c/ HAZARD, PH.IX 



BOSTON 

ttbe ipilarim preee 

CHICAGO 



^ 



i\^ 



^n^ 



LIBRARY of COf^RESS 
Two Copies Received 

DEC 4 9906 

O Copyright Entry 
OLAlS A XXCmNo. 



COPY B. 






b 



Copyright, 1895, i9«6> 
By M. C. Hazard 



LC Control Number 




tmp96 027437 



PREFACE 

Ten years have passed since this little history was 
first given to the public. During that time many edi- 
tions have been published, but without revision. Since 
its first issue new things have come to light and others 
are seen with clearer vision. Particularly it has seemed 
that a fuller statement is needed of the origin of the 
first Home Department, as it was conceived and intro- 
duced by Dr. S. W. Dike, of its union with Dr. W. A. 
Duncan's Home Class in 1886, and of the part borne 
in its development by Dr. A. E. Dunning and the 
Congregational Sunday-School and Publishing Society. 

The estimate of the value of the Home Department 

the author sees no occasion to modify. All that he 

predicted for it has come to pass, and more. It has 

come to be considered an indispensable part of every 

up-to-date, effective Sunday-school, which aims not 

merely to have a place in a parish, but to be felt 

throughout the parish. 

M. C. H. 
July, 1905. 



CONTENTS 



CHAr. PAGE 

I. The Home Class 7 

r. The Origin 8 

2. First Steps in Introduction . 10 

3. Development 21 

II. The Home Department ........ 30 

I. Adoption 41 

III. The Purpose of the Home Department ... 53 

1. Stated 53 

2. Illustrated 66 

IV. The Organization of the Home Department . 88 

1. The Superintendent . . . 91 

2. Visitors 98 

3. Classes 103 

4. Lesson Helps 105 

V. The Home Department and the Pastor . . 106 

1. How the Home Department can help the Pastor . 106 

2. How the Pastor can help the Home Department . 109 
VI. Methods OF THE Home Department . . . .116 

1. International and National 116 

2. State 117 

3. County 119 

4. The Town 120 

5. The Sunday-school 122 

VII. Unique Home Departments . . . . . . 144 

VIII. Home Department Requisites 158 

IX. Difficulties OF THE Home Department . .173 

1. In Starting 174 

2. In Continuing 182 



HOME CLASSES 

AND 

THE HOME DEPARTMENT 



I 



THE HOME CLASS 

Previous to the coming in of the Home Class no 
agency had been developed which would bring those 
living remote from the Sunday-schools into touch with 
it. The question frequently was discussed as to what 
should be done for those thus cut off from its privileges. 
The suggestion which seemed most feasible was to 
establish a little Sunday-school in some family which 
would draw in the neighboring children, and which in 
time might become a school of some importance and 
possibly lead to the formation of a church. Sporadic 
attempts may have been made to carry out this recom_- 
mendation, but if so they have had no record, so far as 
we can learn, and certainly nothing like a vigorous and 
persistent effort ever was made to push the plan. 
Once in a while some persons with a missionary spirit 
were moved to hold a neighborhood Sunday-school 



8 The Home Department 

during the summer in such neglected places. Occa- 
sionally Sunday-school workers were stirred up to visit 
and canvass their county, but solely with reference to 
organizing Sunday-schools wherever they could find 
any persons willing to carry them on. But with a 
Sunday-school wherever one could be planted, there 
would remain some families so far distant that it would 
be impracticable for them and their children to attend. 
How to reach them was the great problem. The Sun- 
day-school was like a net which caught the larger fishes, 
but whose meshes were so coarse that the smaller ones 
slipped through them. The Home Class was the first 
organized, systematic attempt to make the Sunday- 
school extend over the outlying districts. Instead of 
requiring that persons should come to the Sunday- 
school, it carried the Sunday-school into their very 
midst, starting a little class among the children of the 
most distant neighborhood, which was regarded as 
much a part of the school as any other class in it. 
With such a workable plan to aid them, its originator 
and his coworkers determined to canvass the whole 
state of New York for the purpose of bringing its eight 
hundred thousand neglected children under religious 
influences. Their slogan was, " Every child, if pos- 
sible, under Sunday-school instruction, either in a 
church or mission school, or in a Home Sunday-school 
Class." 

It is the history of this Home Class which we now 
propose to give : — 

I. The origin. — While attending a district Sunday- 
school convention in New York State, in the spring of 



The Home Class 9 

1 88 1, a woman who had a veranda class expressed to 
Dr. Duncan her regret that her pastor showed no sym- 
pathy with her work. Living among those who did not 
attend Sunday-school on account of the distance to the 
church, she had gathered a class of boys and girls upon 
a porch for the study of the Sunday-school lesson, and 
walked about three miles every Sunday to teach it. It 
was her idea that she was doing the work of the Sunday- 
school fully as much as any teacher attending its sessions, 
and that her efforts should receive the same recognition 
and help accorded to other teachers. But these were 
withheld because she was not in the same building at the 
same time with the other teachers, instructing her class 
under the personal supervision of the superintendent. 
At that date there had been no conception of extending 
the work of the Sunday-school outside of the church 
building. In the thought of every one the Sabbath- 
school and the place where it was held were as inseparable 
as the warp and woof of a woven fabric. No class' could 
be a part of the school which was not with the school 
during its sessions. 

Instantly Dr. Duncan saw large possibilities in extend- 
ing the boundaries of the Sunday-school to the farthest 
reach of the parish. Probably his connection with the 
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle movement had 
prepared him for such an extension, for in that he had 
seen what could be done in promoting reading and study 
by the formation of small local circles, and even among 
individuals, connected with and acting under the direc- 
tion of the Chautauqua Assembly. Remembering his 
mother's class in the home, where he had received his 



lo TTie Home Department 

formative Christian training, he was moved to sympathy 
for this woman in her isolation in her laudable work 
and experienced not a little indignation on account of 
its lack of recognition. 

This special case suggested the Home Class, as dis- 
tinct from the Sunday-school class, but which, like the 
latter, should be regarded as an integral part of the 
Sunday-school. 

II. First steps in introduction. — In carrying 
out the idea which thus had occurred to him, Dr. 
Duncan made use in New York State of : — 

I. The Woman's Sunday-School Mission Aid 
Association. Believing that what this one woman with 
her veranda class was doing, hundreds of other women 
might do also. Dr. Duncan conceived of a woman's 
organization which, in connection with the New York 
State Sunday-School Association, should stimulate similar 
work all over the state. His thought was that in every 
county women should be appointed whose duty it should 
be systematically to canvass the neglected districts, bring- 
ing into Sunday-school all who could be gathered in, 
to establish new Sunday-schools where they were needed, 
and to form home or neighborhood classes where neither 
could be done. Women were thought of for this work 
rather than men because of their comparative leisure, 
their greater tact and sympathy, and their readier access 
to all sorts of homes. 

Talking over the scheme with Rev. A. F. Beard, d.d., 
then pastor of a Congregational church in Syracuse, and 
now a secretary of the American Missionary Association, 
the latter was so impressed with the importance and 
feasibility of the suggestion, that he advocated it in a 



The Home Class ii 

paper read at the annual convention of the New York 
State Sunday-School Association, held June 7-9, at Cort- 
land. During his remarks Dr. Beard said : ^' She who 
lives in the neighborhood of a neglected district, and 
who will form a Sunday-school in the schoolhouse, or in 
the parlor or kitchen of some friendly house, may not 
measure what will eventuate." Dr. Duncan, speaking in 
the same convention in support of the plan of forming 
such an organization, remarked : ^' Where there is a 
parlor, a kitchen, an empty room in the barn ; where 
there is a tree which God has made to throw shade upon 
the earth ; where there is a Christian mother who loves 
her sons and daughters ; where there is a Christian sister 
who feels like doing something for the Master, — there 
these boys and girls can be gathered in and taught about 
Jesus." 

As a result of this advocacy, there was formed the 
Woman^s Sunday-School Mission Aid Association, " that 
through correspondence and local visitation the Chris- 
tian women of the state may be enlisted in mission 
Sunday-school work." Mrs. Allen Butler, of Syracuse, 
was chosen General Secretary. 

It will be observed that the expression of the purpose 
of the Association does not conform in terms to the 
special work which Dr. Duncan had in mind for it. But 
the formation of Home Classes was only one of the 
things which it was organized to do, and whether it 
should be one of the chief things or not could be de- 
termined only by experiment. The idea of the Home 
Class was as yet too new and untried to be presented 
as the one around which such an organization should 
crystallize. To have urged that as the principal motive 



12 The Home Department 

for the institution of such a body would have been to 
defeat it. In time this Woman^s Association proved to 
be just the effective agency for propagating the Home 
Class idea which Dr. Duncan hoped that it would be. 

It should be further noted that so far the conception 
was only of neighborhood classes. Whether the class 
was to be held in the schoolhouse, the parlor, the 
kitchen, the barn, or under the spreading green tree, it 
was not the Home Class as now understood, but a class 
made up of the children of a neighborhood, meeting 
together under the guidance of a teacher for the study 
of the Sunday-school lesson. While the present con- 
ception of the Home Class does not ignore the value of 
such a gathering (in fact there are many such in exist- 
ence, doing invaluable work), it is not regarded as an 
essential feature. Now the members of a Home Class 
may never meet for associated study. 

The classes then had in mind were for the young. The 
talk was all about gathering in the children. By children, 
as appears from explanatory remarks, were meant those 
between the ages of five and twenty-one. The aim was to 
reach the neglected boys and girls. The conception was 
not as yet sufficiently enlarged to cause the workers to 
consider the neglected and neglecting men and women. 

2. Sunday-school Leaflet No. 6. At the meeting 
of the State Sunday-School Association referred to. Dr. 
Duncan was chosen chairman of the State Executive 
Committee. This choice placed him in a position 
where he could forward his plan to the best advantage. 
Having now the power, he moved rapidly towards the 
realization of his idea. By the middle of June, i88i, 
he published the leaflet indicated, having the caption 



The Home Class 13 

''Home Sunday-school Classes." It was only 4j^x7 
inches and was printed on but one side. In this docu- 
ment Dr. Duncan clearly stated the nature and purpose 
of the classes mentioned. The plan as there outlined is 
important as showing his conception of what they were 
to be and to accomplish. Two paragraphs are quoted 
here, that his idea at that time may be seen. After 
speaking of the vast numbers of unreached children in 
the state of New York (800,000), and after referring to 
the mistaken thought that all efforts to reach them must 
be confined to a church building, he says : — 

One method of reaching these children has been by the 
organization of neighborhood schools ; but in many sections 
there are not children enough to make a school. In such 
localities, and wherever possible, it is proposed to organize 
Sunday-school classes, either at the home of the teacher, or 
in any place where the children can meet together. These 
classes are to be recognized as members of the church school 
to which the teacher may belong, and the class record is to 
be entered upon the books of the school. 

The class books, lesson papers, singing books, and Bibles 
are to be furnished by the parent school ; the hour of service 
one that will be most convenient for the teacher ; the scholars 
to be urged to attend the church services and school as often 
as convenient, and to be invited to take part in all its enter- 
tainments. The exercises of the class should be of such a 
character as would best interest the scholars, and lead them 
to Christ and the Christian church. 

It should be remarked that one principle of the 
organization of the Home Department was put forth 
with emphasis in that leaflet — the recognition of 
home classes as a part of the Sunday-school. Without 
that recognition there could be no Home Department ; 



14 The Home Department, 

that is important to its constitution. In Leaflet No. 6 
the effort was first made to extend the domain of 
the Sunday-school far beyond the walls which had 
hitherto shut it in. 

That it already was coming to be understood that 
the chief work of the Woman's Sunday-School Mission 
Aid Association was the establishing of Home Classes 
is manifest from the remarks made by Dr. J. H. 
Helmer before the Cattaraugus County Sunday-school 
Association, at its annual meeting held July 28 at York- 
shire Centre. After speaking of the appointment of 
Mrs. Butler as State Secretary of the organization, he 
said : " There is also to be a secretary for each county, 
who will have assistants in every township, whose 
duties it shall be to thoroughly canvass the districts and 
establish neighborhood and class schools in destitute 
localities where they may be needed. Wherever a few 
children are living who are not within reach of schools 
already established, it shall be the duty of the canvasser 
to find a Christian woman who is willing to open her 
heart and house and invite the children on Sunday to 
instruct them in the Word of God." 

3. The International Sunday-School Conven« 
tion. — As has been stated, Leaflet No. 6 was published 
in the middle of June, 1881. The Third International 
Sunday-School Convention was to meet in Toronto, June 
22-24, and at that gathering there would be a good 
opportunity to make the new plan widely known. Rev. 
Jeremiah Zimmerman, d.d., pastor of the First English 
Lutheran Church, Syracuse, N. Y., was a delegate to 
that body, and at the instance of Dr. Duncan he took 



The Home Class 15 

with him copies of that leaflet for distribution. From 
the minutes of that convention it does not appear that 
he presented the scheme orally, but that he did so effec- 
tively is manifest from its being twice referred to by Dr. 
Vincent, who credited it at the time to Dr. Zimmerman 
himself. '* Avery great effort," he said, ''has been made 
to reach the people dwelling in cities, towns, and villages, 
but as yet no effort has been made to reach the thou- 
sands of children on farms and in out-of-the-way places. 
He [Dr. Z.] suggests the formation of home classes, 
little parlor classes, meeting together where they cannot 
have a Sunday-school. Let a good man or woman 
get together five or six or eight or ten little people 
and teach them the Word of God ; and where we have 
one Sunday-school now, let us have ten of these little 
classes." 

Writing to Dr. Duncan under date of December 17, 
1894, Dr. Zimmerman says: "Well do I remember, 
when a delegate to the Third International Sunday- 
school Convention in Toronto, Canada, that before going 
you gave me a large bundle of literature on the subject 
[Home Classes] which you had prepared, and requested 
me to bring your plans before the convention. This was 
in 1881, and on the twenty-second of June, the first 
day of the convention, I presented your plans to the 
president, Hon. S. H. Blake, who gave it his hearty 
endorsement and spoke of Christ coming to the homes 
of people with the Bread of life. Various references 
were made to the Sunday-school in the home. . -. . It is 
pleasant to remember having acted in this humble 
capacity. When we recall the grand development of 



l6 The Home Department 

that idea and its vast growth, we are taught again not to 
despise the day of small things." 

The reception given to the plan in the International 
Convention greatly stimulated its author. What was 
endorsed by so experienced and noted a Sunday-school 
man as Dr. Vincent he felt must be indeed valuable. 
Hence he threw himself into the work of pushing it with 
more strength than ever. Dr. Duncan's next step was 
the publication of : — 

4. A Sunday-school newspaper, — This was a 
small four-page paper, the object of which was to push 
Sunday-school work in all its phases throughout the state, 
and, specifically, to urge forward efforts along the new 
lines. In the prospectus appearing in its first issue, Sep- 
tember 1, 1881, it says : *^ In each issue will be presented 
plans for the organization of town associations, neighbor- 
hood Sunday-schools, home study Sunday-school classes, 
and the development of the work of the Woman's Aid 
Board organized at Cortland. " It is hardly needful to say 
that this paper was of great service in making known the 
new plans and securing their adoption. Twenty thousand 
copies were printed the first year and distributed all over 
the state. Through its columns the Woman's Mission 
Aid Association and '' Home Sunday-school Classes" 
soon became familiar terms to Sunday-school workers, and 
neighborhood classes were organized in many localities. 
Incidentally it may be stated that this was the first 
paper started as an aid to the work of a state Sunday- 
school association. It since has had many imitators. 

The religious and secular papers of the state also 
were pressed into service, in so far as the sympathy of 



The Home Class i/ 

their conductors would permit. Thus, in its issue for 
September 22, 1881, there appeared in The Northern 
Christian Advocate of Syracuse, New York, an article 
by Mrs. Allen Butler, General Secretary of the Woman's 
Mission Aid Association, referring to the Home Class 
movement as " A Sunday-school Extension Society.'' 
The article was a column long — a column of the old- 
fashioned length. In it Mrs. Butler refers to the work 
of the Woman's Association, but lays the emphasis 
upon that part of it which relates to neighborhood 
classes, " Some neighborhoods," she says, " have not 
children enough for a school, but five or six are worth 
saving. These are to be gathered into * Home Sunday- 
school Classes,' that some Christian women who cannot 
be teachers in church schools, because of their dis- 
tance from them, will be willing to take into their 
homes. These classes are to be counted as classes of 
the church school, from which they will receive lesson 
papers and other supplies, and when entertainments of 
any kind are given for the benefit of the school, these 
classes will be invited, and eventually they will prove 
part of the school." From this it appears that the 
Woman's Association had heartily taken up the Home 
Class^ plan, and was pushing the organization of neigh- 
borhood classes with all its power. That power prom- 
ised to be considerable, for already women were being 
enlisted in its work, and the secretary was making 
determined effort to get a woman secretary for each 
county and for each town in the county. 

Rev. E. O. Laughlin, writing for " Sunday-Schools at 
Work" for October, says : ** No plan commended itself 



i8 The Home Department 

more generally to the recent State Convention of the 
Church of Christ, held at Tully, N. Y., in September, 
than that which is now inaugurated and being perfected 
by the State Sunday-School Association, which pro- 
poses neighborhood work in districts too remote for 
children to attend the church school." 

Again attention is called to the fact that so far the 
Home Class really meant a neighborhood class person- 
ally taught in some home. The term was used because 
it was supposed that the neighborhood classes would 
be more often taught in homes than in schoolhouses. 
The designation, too, was relied upon to popularize 
the movement on account of its suggestion of the in- 
formality, freedom, and sociability of a class taught in 
the atmosphere of the home. It was believed that a 
class with that title would be more attractive than one 
called a Neighborhood Class, and that it would be apt 
to hold together longer. This choice of terms, appar- 
ently fortuitous, was a happy one, for if the other had 
been employed the movement never would have been 
heard from to any great extent. The neighborhood 
class idea as a movement failed, because of the diffi- 
culty of inspiring competent persons to take up such 
work, though some neighborhood classes are still cfarried 
on and are doing effectual work. 

The neighborhood class had too many limitations to 
grow into a great movement. It could not be carried on 
except by some one personally present every Sabbath. 
In each case there must be found one near enough who 
had the consecration, zeal, and teaching ability to gather 
and hold such a class — and such a one in godless neigh- 



The Home Class 19 

borhoods was by no means always easy to discover. 
Again, there was a division of thought as to the can- 
vassing, some affirming that a thorough canvass of the 
state once every five years was often enough, while 
others advocated a canvass for each year. A five-year 
canvass was good for not much more than the correction 
of the faulty statistics of the previous four years, while 
a yearly canvass, in addition to getting reliable statistics, 
certainly would stir up each neighborhood so much 
oftener that there was hope of its keeping some Sunday- 
schools alive which without it were likely to die. The 
Woman^s Aid Board planned to have a canvass every 
year. But even that was not often enough to hinder the 
Home Classes from disintegrating. On the part of those 
who conducted them there was not that feeling of 
responsibility which rested upon those who had to do 
with the larger numbers gathered into a school. They 
gave up their classes more easily. A lack of interest on 
the part of their scholars, a dwindling away of the class, 
a few Sundays of bad weather and bad going, a sense of 
unfitness, an inability to control on one or two occasions, 
a Sunday disinclination to work — any little difficulty, in 
many cases, would cause the teacher to give up the 
neighborhood class. It needed an element of continued 
personal supervision, contact, and encouragement from 
the main school which as yet it lacked. 

The New York State Sunday-School Association re- 
ports for 1882 and 1883, indicate but little progress in. 
the Home Class movement. Mrs. Butler reports in 1882 
organizations of the Woman's Aid Board in nineteen 
out of the sixty counties of the state. In only one of 



20 The Home Department 

the nineteen reports is there any reference to a Home 
Class, and that is to a single Home Class organized in 
connection with Good Will Sunday-school at Syracuse, 
of which Dr. Duncan himself was the founder. Through- 
out the convention the work of the Woman's Aid was 
fervidly praised, but Httle was said about its doing any- 
thing for Home Classes. Dr. Duncan himself did not 
refer to them. Possibly the subject was more fully 
ventilated in the side conference held by the Woman's 
Aid Association, a report of which was not made. 
That something had been done in planting neighbor- 
hood classes by the Woman's Association, however, is 
made evident by the passage of a resolution at a con- 
ference of that body during the sessions of the State 
Sunday-School Association, approving ^*the * Home 
Class ' system as eminently practical and useful, meet- 
ing a great want in this commonwealth." In the report 
of 1883 the Home Class is mentioned more frequently. 
Dr. Duncan advocates its utility and explains its con- 
stitution and its relation to the main school, and says 
that hundreds of Home Classes are being started. Miss 
M. A. Beecher of Verona, Oneida County, refers spe- 
cifically to two, one of forty and the other of fourteen 
members, and mentions one other which soon resulted 
in a Sunday-school of forty members, later increased to 
fifty, and adds : '' That is the way our Home Classes 
go ; they all run into Sunday-schools." In '^ Sunday- 
Schools at Work," however, for 1882-3 there are 
reports of Home Classes organized here and there, and 
that paper keeps before its readers the motto : *^ Organ- 
ize Home Classes and Mission Schools in every hamlet 



The Home Class 21 

where there are no church privileges y C. H. Longstreet, 
missionary for Onondaga County, reports in that paper 
for October, 1882, that under him three hundred Visit- 
ors had been appointed, and that all the Visitors had 
themselves been visited, some of them more than once. 

III. Progress. — In developing the Home Class 
plan the first step naturally had reference to : — 

I. Canvassing. — The infrequency of visitation 
and over-sight was the evident weak spot. A canvass 
once in five years was of no value whatever in keeping 
up Home Classes. An annual canvass was better, but 
still the twelvemonth gap was too great. There were 
few Home Classes which would survive a year of isola- 
tion. The connection with the main school needed to 
be maintained oftener than that. That fact was soon 
discovered, and through the Woman's Mission Aid 
Board an attempt was made to exercise over the Home 
Classes a more continuous oversight. Of this fact we 
have a record in a mention made of the Home Class 
work in ** The Sunday-School Quarterly," edited by 
Dr. Peloubet, for the Second Quarter of 1883. This 
mention is so important that it is here quoted in full : — 

REACHING THE MASSES BY THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

An effort is being made in New York to canvass the 
whole state in the interests of the Sabbath schools. It is 
said that there are now in that state 800,000 children not 
under any religious influences, and a plan has been put into 
operation to reach these neglected ones. 

A Woman's Mission Sunday-school Aid Association has 
been formed. A lady for Town Secretary is to be secured for 
each town, who is to cause a thorough canvass to be made. 



2 2 The Home Department 

**The object is to bring every child, if possible, under 
Sunday-school instruction, either in a Church or Mission 
school, or in a Home Sunday-school class. 

** The Town Secretary is expected to superintend the work 
in her own township, and report to the County Secretary. 

** Let as many helpers be secured as are needed to visit 
every part of the town. The territory should be divided 
into small districts^ and visitors appointed for each. It is 
expected that the officers of Town Associations will aid the 
Secretaries in their selection, and cooperate in this work. 
In case there be no union town organization, the Secretary 
should call a meeting of representatives from each of the 
churches, that district visitors may be appointed and 
encouraged to unite in this work. These should go to every 
house and learn ; — 

*' Whether the residents attend church or not — and where. 

** What children are in Sunday-school — and where. 

*' How many are not in such schools, and if they are will- 
ing to go — and where. 

** Then, at another meeting, report and give to each church 
a list of those who wish to attend their church and school. 

'* Where children are found too far away from any school 
to be willing to attend, then a Mission school should be 
organized if there are children enough, or some Christian 
woman living in the neighborhood should be asked to take 
them into her house and teach them as her ' Home Sunday- 
school Class.' 

*'This class should be considered a part of her church 
school, to which she will look for lesson leaves, Sunday- 
school papers, etc. 

"When there is to be an entertainment or picnic, this 
class should be invited to attend, as a part of the school. 

**The organization of these Home Classes is perhaps the 
special feature of the Woman's Mission Sunday-school Aid 
Association, and should be very prominent in the town 
canvasses. 



The Home Class 23 

** While statistics are gathered as suggested, let the main 
work of bringing every child under Sunday-school or Bible 
instruction be earnestly pressed. 

** This is not a mere canvass of the town to obtain statis- 
tics. Such an effort was made years ago, but failed for 
various reasons. 

** This new work maintains a continuous oversight, 

** Each of the visitors is given not more than twenty or 
twenty-five families for her field." 

Further information or reference to this plan of work 
can be obtained from Wm. A. Duncan, Esq., of Syracuse, 
N. Y., Chairman of the Executive Committee. 

The quoted parts of this statement were taken from 
a circular issued in 1882, jointly prepared by Dr. Duncan 
and Edward Danforth, respectively the chairman and 
the secretary of the New York State Sunday-School 
Executive Committee. The publication in so prominent 
a Sunday-school periodical of this method of reaching the 
neglected districts called wide attention to it, and gave 
to it a fresh and strong impulse. From it we learn : — 

1. That so early as 1882 the organization of Home 
Classes had come to be considered the special feature 
of the Woman's Aid Association. 

2. That in canvassing the work had been reduced to 
a practical basis, the suggestion being made of dividing 
the territory in each case into small districts, to each of 
which a Visitor should be appointed. The districts were 
to be so divided that each visitor should not have to call 
upon more than twenty or twenty-five famihes. By this 
arrangement noVisitorwas given a task which from the 
first was too discouraging to be undertaken. Her field 
was not so great but that she could go over it as often as 
occasion should require. 



24 The Home Department 

3. ThsLt a mere yearly canvass was not contemplated so 
much as the continuous oversight which should follow. 
Inasmuch as quarterlies were then coming to take the 
place of lesson leaves and yearly question books, the 
touch of the Visitors with the Home Classes inevitably 
was determined by the necessity of supplying them once 
every three months with their lesson periodicals. Con- 
tact with them every quarter, instead of once in twelve 
months or once in five years, certainly was a great step 
forward. 

Turning back now to the New York State report for 
1883, we see the reason for the good report made from 
Binghamton. The ladies there had been operating 
under the suggestions of the circular. Telling of the 
work there, Mrs. J. H. Barnes says : — 

Our first plan was to make a thorough canvass; and we 
found in the city of Binghamton six hundred out of Sunday- 
school, of whom four hundred promised to attend. But we 
failed to find out how many did attend. We then formed 
our present plan. We invited a lady from each of the 
fourteen Protestant Sunday-schools in our city to meet with 
us and devise plans for our work. Seven ladies responded 
to this call. We adopted a constitution and by-laws, and 
divided our city into very small districts, so as not to be 
burdensome to any one. 

At the next meeting, one week after, thirty were present. 
Eleven churches have now united with us, and we have some 
seventy canvassers throughout the city. We have not 
finished the work yet, but we have visited, I think, over a 
thousand families. Each visitor has a book and is required 
to keep a list of the families, ask whether they attend church, 
how many children attend Sunday-school, and how many 
will attend, and whether they have a Bible. We found many 
without Bibles; these we supplied from the Bible Society. 



The Home Class 05 

If we find cases of destitution, they are reported to the 
denomination of their preference. We intend to persist 
until every child attends some Sabbath-school, etc. 

The organization thus perfected in Binghamton 
proved to be permanent. In the following year, 1884 y 
Mrs. Barnes again reported as follows : — 

A thorough canvass was made last year. In the city of 
Binghamton there is the most thorough organization that 
we know of for our Woman's Mission Aid work. Each 
visitor is made responsible for her district for a year. The 
children are all known to her, so that she can have a per- 
sonal influence over them, which will go further than any- 
thing else in making the work permanent. What is true in 
other departments is true in this ; that when well inaugu- 
rated, there need not be a frequent recanvassing of the terri- 
tory, but a constant watchfulness which would detect any 
falling off, and also discover newcomers in the district who 
need to be drawn within the Sunday-school circle. 

Out of this plan of canvassing was developed the 
Home Class Visitor; without whom the Home Class 
never could succeed except in occasional instances. So 
far, indeed, the Visitor was simply a canvasser, looking 
after the general interests of her Sunday-school field and 
having no especial responsibility for any Home Classes 
in it beyond stimulating both teachers and scholars. 
Evidently the change from a mere canvasser to being 
the conductor of the Home Class was a process of 
evolution. Inasmuch as so often the teacher of the 
Home Class could not be relied upon to continue the 
work, it was in the course of things that more and more 
responsibility should fall upon the Visitor. Teachers 
found it convenient to rely upon the Visitors for their 



26 The Home Department 

quarterly supplies of lesson helps, which were often 
delivered to the scholars themselves. The Visitors 
reported the needs of the Home Classes to the superin- 
tendent ; made known to him how they were getting on ; 
looked after the interests of the Classes in regard to 
entertainments, picnics, etc. ; kept them informed of 
what was taking place in the main school ; carried the 
Class collections to the treasury of the school ; visited 
the homes of the Home Class scholars ; urged, when it 
seemed advisable, that they should join the main school, 
etc. Thus the Visitor in time came into closer contact 
with the members of a Home Class than did the teacher 
herself ; and when the teacher gave up her work the loss 
was comparatively little felt, for the existence of the 
Class had ceased to devolve upon her. This evolution 
of the canvasser into the conductor of the Home Class 
was very slow, for the idea of holding a neighborhood 
class, under the term Home Class, taught viva voce by 
a teacher, was one which was tenaciously held. It did 
not seem possible to have a class in any other way. It 
was this conception which stood in the way of progress. 
The work of organizing Home Classes on the basis 
explained was still vigorously pushed. How many were 
begun in 1883-84 does not appear in the minutes of the 
New York State Sunday-School Association, held in 
Oswego, June 3-5, 1884, probably for the reason that the 
Woman's Aid Board held a conference by itself auring 
the sessions of the convention, the proceedings of which 
were not incorporated in the records. In the report 
made to the convention by the Woman's Board, Miss 
Mary A. Beecher referred to the usefulness of Home 



The Home Class 27 

Classes, particularly in winter when many schools are 
closed, and affirmed that there were a great many Home 
Classes not connected with any Sunday-school 

During the spring and summer of 1884, Hon. Edward 
Danforth, secretary of the New York State Sunday- 
School Association, who had become greatly interested 
in the Home Class idea, visited the various State Sunday- 
school conventions of New England, explaining the 
purpose of the Home Class, telling what had been 
accomplished by it in New York, and urging its general 
adoption. 

In conferences held at Chautauqua, which were be- 
gun by Dr. Duncan in 1881, for interchange of id^as 
and methods among Sunday-school workers from all 
over the country, the Home Class movement was ex- 
plained and its adaptability to accomplish its purpose 
shown by citing examples. These conferences were at- 
tended by such men as Bishop Vincent, J. L. Hurlbut, 
B. F. Jacobs, Dr. A. E. Dunning, Dr. F. N. Peloubet, 
S. W. Clark, James S.Ostrander, Rev. James H. Babbitt, 
etc. It was here that Dr. Peloubet obtained the informa- 
tion which led him to publish in his quarterly the article 
on the Home Class reproduced on pages 21-23. It is 
quite probable that the organization of some of the 
Home Classes in other States was due to these confer- 
ences. Of one such case we have a definite report : — 

J. F. Drake, now of Pasadena, California, but then 
of Emporia, Kansas, was present in 1882; the result 
being that a Home Department was organized early in 
1883 ^^ connection with the First Congregational Sun- 
day-school of Emporia, of which Dr. Richard Cordley 



2 8 The Home Department 

was pastor. Mrs. A. P. Morse was made superinten- 
dent, but Mr. Drake made the first printed report which 
was as follows : — 

Objections were made at the start that it would diminish 
the attendance of the school, as many would stay at home 
and study, who otherwise would attend. But the reverse 
proved to be the case, as the school has increased instead, 
while more than sixty are enrolled in the Home Department, 
who otherwise would have but little, if any, Bible study. 
But this is not all; the house-to-house visitation found many 
with church letters laid away, and this show of interest 
caused them to present them to the church. Nor was this 
all. The Home Department opened several doors to the 
pastor, which would not have been opened, and attendance 
upon the church and ultimately union with the church fol- 
lowed. As a summary we find that: — 

It [has] increased the interest and attendance in the main 
school. 

It gave those who otherwise would have no religious in- 
struction at least one-half hour of Bible study. 

It [has] recovered backsliders. 

It [has] increased church attendance, and so church- 
membership. 

It, through visitation, [has] developed Christian workers. 

2. The Congregational Sunday-School and 
Publishing Society. — This Society has its head- 
quarters in Boston. It is both a publishing house and 
a missionary society. 

Rev. A. E. Dunning, d.d., now the editor of The Con- 
gregationalist, was then its secretary. By invitation of 
Dr. Duncan in February, 1883, he took part in a con- 
vention held in Syracuse, N. Y., where a paper upon 
" The Visitor's Mission Work " was read by Mrs. Allen 
Butler. Through that paper, and through the informa- 



The Home Class 29 

tion given by Dr. Duncan, he first had knowledge of 
the Home Class. That visit led to his inviting Dr. 
Duncan to become District Secretary for the Society 
late in 1883. Naturally Dr. Duncan sought to make 
the Home Class idea of value in his new work. Along 
with other duties, he organized Home Classes, making 
mention of them in his monthly reports. One of the 
most interesting of these (January 3, 1885) states that 
the Home Class organized in July numbers about 
twenty, and that it has a prayer-meeting at which full 
thirty were present. 

To summarize the progress made by the Home Class 
movement: — the State of New York had been pretty 
well canvassed by the Woman's Sunday-School Mission 
Aid Association in its behalf, many Home Classes 
having been organized ; wide attention to it had been 
called in the conferences held at Chautauqua, in Pelou- 
bet's lesson quarterlies, in Sunday-school conventions 
throughout New England by the addresses of Hon. 
Edward Danforth, and in the International Sunday- 
school Convention held at Toronto in June, 1881, by 
the efforts of Rev. Jeremiah Zimmerman, d.d. ; and 
lastly it had been recognized by The Congregational 
Sunday-School and Publishing Society in connection 
with the work of Dr. Duncan as its District Secretary 
for New York. Of the Home Class Dr. Vincent said 
that it was the greatest single addition to the Sunday- 
school movement in a hundred years, since Robert 
Raikes started the first school, as that confined the school 
to a room, while this made it as large as the parish. 

We how come to the inception and introduction of : — • 



II 

THE HOME DEPARTMENT 

While pastor in rural Vermont, Rev. S. W. Dike, 
LL.D., now Secretary of The League for the Protection 
of the Family, was deeply impressed with the spiritual 
needs of people in outlying districts and of the great 
peril to the churches and to society unless those needs 
should be met. How to reach them was the question. 
Dr. Dike's pastoral experience and sociological studies 
suggested that the most effective way would be through 
the family to connect the Home with the Church. To 
secure this connection he suggested that efforts be 
made to secure the study of the Bible in the home, 
under the auspices of the Sunday-school. While at 
Royalton, Vt., the plan took such shape that he thus 
outlined it in The Vermont Chronicle of January 9, 
1885: — 

A HOME DEPARTMENT OF THE SUNDAY- 
SCHOOL 

Every pastor and Sunday-school superintendent has had 
occasion to regret that sickness, infirmity, or some other 
cause beyond control keeps a number of the best of his 
charge from active participation in the Sunday-school serv- 
ice. There are others, also, who do not attend any public 
service and who have resisted, for various reasons, all efforts 
to bring them into this service of the church. Sometimes 
one or two children only will attend out of a family. And 

30 



The Home Department 31 

on the borders of our parishes there are always more or less 
families that cannot be reached by any Sunday-school with- 
out the greatest difficulty. These families cannot, or think 
they cannot, go to the church school. Something ought to 
be done for them. And those aged and infirm people who 
have perhaps been in the Sunday-school most of their lives 
hardly ought to be left without a taste of the cherished 
privileges of a lifetime. 

Now why not have a Home Department for these classes ? 
We have our uniform lessons and lesson quarterlies in 
abundance. Some of these are very well adapted to use in 
private study at home. The religious newspapers all have 
their notes on the lesson, and so do some of the others. Be- 
sides, if attention were once fairly turned to a real need, the 
quick-witted publisher would speedily make excellent adap- 
tations for the purpose. And then the pastor and superin- 
tendent might get competent persons to canvass their field 
and find how many could join such a department of the 
Sunday-school, to be composed of those who could not at- 
tend the public service of the school more than say six times 
in a year, and of those who could not come at all. Then 
get as many to enroll their names as members of the school 
as possible. Make the conditions at first very few and 
simple, if best. Have the members feel their privilege as 
such, entitled to the use of the library, to copies of all re- 
ports and announcements if any are printed, and to such 
systematic visits, helps, and attentions as are given any 
other members, and to the special care their retired situation 
may entitle them to receive. If need be, have an assistant 
superintendent who shall attend to this department. 

If there are any who do not wish to be tied to the order of 
Bible study provided in the uniform lessons, let there be a 
Bible class of these people. That is, let each choose a 
course of Sunday study of the Bible as best adapted to him- 
self and family, consenting, for the encouragement of others, 
and as a duty to his church, to be enrolled in some manner 
like the rest. The object is, of course, to extend the aims 



32 The Home Department 

and scope of the Sunday-school work as far as possible. 
We might begin with the prattling child, too young to go to 
church, and let the church, through its school, put its hand 
on him and bring him into the school before his little feet 
could take him there. 

But I need not enlarge. Any pastor or superintendent 
can see the possibilities here. Five, ten, twenty per cent in 
numbers could be practicalfy added to more than half our 
schools in this way by a bright superintendent, quick at in- 
vention and having good tact. Many a school is worked up 
to about its largest numbers on the present plan of utilizing 
only those who can get within the walls of its place and serv- 
ice, but still leaves many persons outside. So7ne of these 
outside can certainly be brought into a valuable membership 
by the plan hinted at. In time, probably a good many 
might. It is likely that there are persons in every parish, 
longing, with an undefined desire it may be, for just this very 
thing. It is one of the plans, I am convinced, that we must 
consider, in order to reach all the people in a scattered pop- 
ulation. And it could not succeed in any degree without 
passing some of the pupils of the Home Departm.ent into 
the regular sessions of the Sunday-school. More than all, 
it would stimulate that sense of parental obligation and 
domestic privilege which is of incomparable value to the 
Church. 

This letter to The Vermont Chronicle was cut out 
and enclosed in a personal letter to Dr. Dunning, to- 
gether with some further details, and the hope was ex- 
pressed that he would see enough in it to work it out 
for practical use. Dr. Dunning thought the plan an 
excellent one. He embodied the suggestions of Dr. 
Dike in a letter, a pledge and a report card which were 
to be sent to each one in a church parish whom it was 
desired to enroll as a member. The letter and the 
pledge are here reproduced : — - 



The Home Department 33 

THE LETTER 

Dear Friend^ — Aware that many are deprived of the 
privilege of the study of the Bible in the regular service of 
the Sunday-school, on account of age, infirmity, distance 
from the church, and similar reasons, our Sunday-school has 
a Home Department to aid all such, to be composed of those 
who will comply with the following conditions, which are 
made as simple as possible, in order to enlist all that we can 
in the work : — 

1. Sign and return the pledge enclosed, which asks you 
to spend not less than a half-hour each Sunday in the study 
of the Sunday-school lesson for the day, whenever you are 
able to do so. 

2. Keep for yourself, or for yourself and others of your 
family who are also members, upon the enclosed report 
card, a record of your attendance upon the study of the 
lesson, marking with x x any Sunday when you attend the 
main Sunday-school. 

3. On the last Sunday in each quarter, put the report card 
in an envelope and address it to the superintendent of the 
Sunday-school. 

Lesson Quarterlies, either the larger or smaller, will be 
furnished you (by mail or otherwise) each quarter at five 
cents each for the Senior, and four cents for Intermediate 
grades ; and they will be sent free to any who feel unable to 
pay for them. As far as we are able, you shall be made 
acquainted with the work of our school and of this depart- 
ment. 

It is hoped that this simple, easy plan will receive your 
cordial support 

Faithfully yours 



34 The Home Department 

THE PLEDGE 

We, the undersigned, agree to join the Home Department 

of the Sunday-school, and to 

spend at least half an hour each Sunday in the study of the 
lesson for that day, unless prevented by sickness or other 
good cause. We will continue our membership till we 
notify the superintendent of withdrawal 



.188 



The Pilgrim Teacher, which became the organ of 
the Home Department, thus speaks of the new move- 
ment in its issue of June, 1885 : — 

The Sunday-school at Royalton, Vt., has undertaken, at 
the suggestion of Rev. S. W. Dike, a Home Department 
for those who, because of infirmity, age, distance from 
church, or other reasons, are unable to attend the main 
school. Families where such recruits are likely to be found 
are called upon by some officer or teacher in the school, and 
the plan is explained. Those who are willing to accept the 
invitation, sign a card, promising to spend at least half an 
hour each Sunday on the study of the lesson, unless pre- 
vented by good cause. A record for each Sunday is kept on 
a report card, which is sent to the superintendent at the 
close of the quarter. A special mark indicates Sundays on 
which they attend the main school. The school agrees to 
keep these members informed of matters of interest, and to 
assist them in all ways in its power. No doubt by this means 
many may be retained in relations to the Sunday-schools who 
would otherwise be compelled to drop out altogether. 



The fundamental aim common to both the Home 
Class and the Home Department was the extension of 



The Home Department 35 

Bible study outside of the Sunday-school in organized 
connection with it. Both made use of school enrol- 
ment, lesson helps, record of study, offerings and free 
use of the school library. They differed in their appli- 
cation of this idea as follows : — 

1. The Home Department contemplated the study of 
the lesson in the home by all the members of the family 
who could be induced to join the plan, separately or 
together. It made no use of the term *' class," though 
its ideal was the study of the Scriptures by the whole 
family under the guidance of one or both parents. It 
made actual home classes possible. In the circular of 
which mention has been made there was a reference 
to such "" a household of eleven members, including 
four grandparents," one of whom acted as teacher. 

2. The Home Department provided for individual 
study of the lesson. If but one in a family signed the 
pledge card, he was by that act constituted a member 
of the Department and of the Sunday-school. 

3. The Home Department did away with the hitherto 
supposed necessity of a teacher. No reference is made 
to that official in any of its documents. The members of 
the household were merely pledged to study the lesson 
a half hour each Sunday. It was left to them, without 
suggestion, to determine whether they should select some 
one to conduct their study after the usual manner or 
should follow a special course of study. 

4. The Home Department aimed to enlist in home 
study of the Bible not merely the young, but also those 
of all ages. It invited the aged, the infirm, the sick, 
the non-attendants of the church, etc. The Home 



36 The Home Department 

Class had rather appealed to the thought of instruct- 
ing those between the ages of five and twenty-one. 

Indeed, the mistake of the Sunday-school has been 
that too generally the gathering in of the young has 
been considered to be its mission. Its conductors have 
been too easily satisfied with securing a fair proportion 
of those of " school age." The Home Class movement 
was at first projected upon the current notion with re- 
gard to the ages of those whom it should reach. The 
Home Department has a wider outlook. It aims to 
induce the study of the Bible by those of every age, 
the emphasis of its address being to those of mature 
years. It is hoped that its success with them will have 
some effect in changing the constitution of the Sunday- 
school itself so that less rarely than now classes will 
be seen in it composed of the most prominent and in- 
fluential business men. The ideal Sunday-school will 
not be reached until it becomes the teaching session of 
the church and congregation. 

As has been noted, Dr. Dike submitted his scheme 
to Dr. Dunning with the request, should he approve, 
that he would put it into workable shape. This Dr. 
Dunning did He formulated the documents neces- 
sary to carry the plan into operation, submitting them 
to Dr. Dike for approval, later adding others, and 
modifying as experience made it more apparent how 
the work could be effectively carried on. His share 
in launching the Home Department movement was no 
small one, and for it he should have due credit. 

Neither was the share of The Congregational Sunday- 
School and Publishing Society in its introduction and 



The Home Department 37 

development one that can be overlooked. It made the 
scheme known, demonstrated its practicability, devel- 
oped it, and advertised it so widely that before long it 
was taken up by other denominations and by Sunday- 
school workers everywhere. The Society was admi- 
rably equipped to do this service. It is both a publish- 
ing house and a Sunday-school missionary organization. 
Through its Sunday-school periodicals, especially The 
Pilgrim Teacher, which goes into the hands of minis- 
ters, superintendents and teachers, it is able to speak 
to a multitude of people. When the plan was laid 
before them by the Secretary, by letters and by docu- 
ments, its Sunday-school missionaries became its enthu- 
siastic propagators. They put it into practice. It 
helped them to solve the problem of identifying many 
people with the Sunday-school who were scattered over 
so wide an area that they could not all meet together 
in the schoolroom. And then having demonstrated its 
feasibility, they talked about it in Sunday-school con- 
ventions and wherever they went, thus inciting others 
to take up the work. 

The Society also took pains to call the attention of 
other denominations to the Home Department. Its 
requisites were all copyrighted, lest some irresponsible 
persons might seize upon the plan and appropriate it 
for the sake of the money which might be made out of 
it ; but the Society expressed its willingness to grant 
to any denomination which might apply for it the privi- 
lege of availing itself of any or all of its forms without 
cost. Until the movement was thoroughly established 
among the denominations, beyond the possibility of 



3^ The Home Department 

piracy, the Society guarded its copyright, acting in so 
doing for the good of all. 

The Home Department, however, did not in all 
respects follow its first outlines. The development 
emphasized the family less and the individual or 
associated group more. The securing of the study 
of the Bible by the family, as a family, in almost 
all instances proved to be impracticable. In those 
families where there was the disposition, the children 
already were in the Sunday-school and the parents 
were encouraging them in the study of the Scriptures. 
In other cases the parents were too indifferent or too 
sensible of their own unfitness to undertake it. Thus 
it came to pass, when solicited, that they sent their 
children to the Sunday-school, if they were not already 
going, and rarely did anything more. Occasionally 
one of the parents, seldom both, would sign the pledge- 
card for the study of the lesson in the home. The 
appeal was most successful in securing the signatures 
of the aged, the infirm, the sick, the '* shut-ins." To 
these the opportunity came as a godsend. It was wel- 
comed by them as a breath of fragrant spring air 
through an open window which long had been closed. 

Further, the Home Department plan, on this basis, 
did not largely succeed, because it did not make use of 
the continuous touch which had been provided for in 
the Home Class system. It depended entirely too 
much upon the voluntary persistence of the Home 
Department student in keeping up his study and in mak- 
ing his quarterly reports. He was asked at the end of 
each quarter to make out his report and send it in, and 



The Home Department 39 

then it was proposed to send him lesson supplies by 
mail, or, if it happened to be convenient, by hand. If 
anything has been demonstrated, it is that solitary study, 
without any personal supervision or outside contact, wii; 
be dropped in almost every instance after the novelty 
has worn off, except in the case of the ^' shut-ins." 
Actual trial has shown that the Visitor is the most im- 
portant feature in the home study plan. Without her 
frequent visits, encouraging and sympathizing words, 
reports of the main school, invitations to socials, notifi- 
cations of Home Department days, etc., all of which 
bring the solitary student into touch with the main 
school so that he feels the impulse of its life — without 
these the Department would dwindle almost from the 
start and would soon die out. 

The Home Department requisites issued by The Con- 
gregational Sunday-School and Publishing Society were 
adopted by Dr. Duncan, the Field Secretary of the 
Society, and used by him throughout the state of New 
York. They put a new phase upon Sunday-school ex- 
tension, and were employed by him to great advantage. 
In that state Home Departments multiplied more 
rapidly than anywhere else, for he had all the enginery 
of the Woman's Mission Aid Board to push them. 
And in that state, too, they succeeded better than in 
other states because they were persistently looked after 
by the canvassing visitors. And it is just here, in all 
probability, that we must trace the transformation of 
the canvasser, or Visitor, into the conductor of the Home 
Class. As has been noted, the Home Department dis- 
pensed with the teacher as a necessity. All that was 



4© The Home Department 

needed was that there should be some one who should 
deliver the new lesson helps required, receive the report 
cards and the contributions, impart the necessary infor- 
mation, etc. This, in Dr. Duncan's working of the 
plan, was done by Visitors. In his system each Visitor 
was given from twenty to twenty-five homes to look 
after. The students in those homes came to be looked 
upon by her as her class, and in time were called her 
class. Thus was gradually developed a Home Class 
such as was not contemplated either in the original 
Home Class plan or in the Home Department. The 
Home Class, as in most cases now constituted, is made 
up of isolated members, with now and then a group, in 
different homes, looked after by one Visitor. A num- 
ber of such classes makes up a Home Department. It 
was through this method of working the Home Depart- 
ment that in 1886 the Home Class movement became 
incorporated with it. 

After several years of trial by The Congregational 
Sunday-School and Publishing Society on the basis 
already indicated, the writer hereof, in 1889-90, as the 
Editor of that Society, in consultation with Dr. Duncan, 
reformed the plan of the Home Department. Recog- 
nizing the fact that what is everybody's business is 
nobody's business, it was decided to place the Home 
Department of the Sunday-school upon the same foot- 
ing as the Intermediate Department, or the Primary 
Department, and assign to it a superintendent who 
should be entirely responsible for its conduct, subject to 
the higher authority of the superintendent of the school 
and its executive committee. The system of visitation 



The Home Department 41 

was incorporated, each Visitor being recognized as hav- 
ing full charge of her Home Class. The corps of Visi- 
tors was ranked along with the teachers in the main 
school. It was recommended that quarterly reports of 
the Home Department should be made to the main 
school and that quarterly reports of all the depart- 
ments, including their own, should be made to the 
members of the Home Department. A set of books 
and other requisites were devised to carry out these 
plans, which have been very widely copied. Thus, and 
for the first time, in the documents issued, the aggrega- 
tion of Home Classes in connection with any Sunday- 
school was constituted into a perfectly systematized 
Home Department. 

adoption . 

The Home Class idea, which preceded the Home 
Department, had its birth in the same year with that of 
the Christian Endeavor movement. The latter had its 
inception in February of 1881, and the Home Class in 
June of that year. The Christian Endeavor Society was 
formed for the purpose of training young people into 
Christian life and service ; the Home Class was origi- 
nated to promote the study of the Bible outside of the 
Sunday-school, especially by the young. 

The thought embodied in the Christian Endeavor 
Society was the quicker to catch public attention and to 
secure approval. It did so because the minds of many 
had been dwelling upon the necessity of doing some- 
thing to stimulate Christian life in the young, to bring 



42 The Home Department 

them into closer connection with the church, and to 
develop them into earnest and successful workers for 
the Master. Therefore, when Father Endeavor Clark, 
as his constituency delight to call him, seized upon the 
Endeavor idea and made use of it with such good 
results, others were ready to take it up and adopt it. In 
seven years after the organization of the first Young 
People's Society of Christian Endeavor, the multiplica- 
tion of societies was such, and their demands for infor- 
mation, guidance and help were so great, that Dr. Clark 
felt compelled to give up his pastoral work that he might 
devote his whole time to fostering and propagating the 
Christian Endeavor idea. 

The suggestion of study outside of the Sunday-school, 
begun first by the Home Class and later by the Home 
Department, was of slower growth, because people had 
not been thinking along that line. The soil had not been 
prepared for it. It had to win its way against a natural 
incredulity as to its practicability. It was believed that 
the Sunday-school was already accomplishing all that it 
could in the direction of Bible study. It was feared 
by some that, if such outside study should succeed at 
all, it would be at the expense of attendance upon the 
Sunday-school itself. Therefore it had to demonstrate 
not only its feasibility but also its harmlessness. It 
began to grow when it not only succeeded in doing 
this, but actually proved itself to be a positive rein- 
forcement to the main school. The expansion of the 
movement, though somewhat tardy in coming, has of 
late years become almost as phenomenal as that of the 
Christian Endeavor Society. It has been recommended 



The Home Department 43 

by many county and state Sunday-school associations ; 
it has been approved in the summer Sunday-school 
assemblies ; it has received the unqualified endorse- 
ment of the last World's Sunday-School Convention ; it 
has been adopted by nearly every evangelical denomi- 
nation ; it is to be found in successful operation not 
only in the United States, but also in England, 
Canada, Bohemia and India. 

As has been noted, a great impulse was given to the 
Home Department through its being taken up by The 
Congregational Sunday-School and Publishing Society. 
A still greater impetus was administered to it by the 
final reshaping or perfecting of the plan just alluded 
to. It then everywhere commended itself to Sunday- 
school workers as being both desirable and feasible. 
Other denominations adopted it, asking permission 
of The Congregational Sunday-School and Publishing 
Society to lise its copyrighted requisites. State Sun- 
day-school associations gave to it their hearty recom- 
mendation. Some states appointed secretaries who 
should devote a part or all of their time towards intro- 
ducing the Home Department into the Sunday-schools. 
The International and the World's Sunday-school con- 
ventions endorsed it, and the International Sunday- 
School Executive Committee has made the stimula- 
tion of Home Departments a part of its plan in its 
interdenominational work. The Home Department 
now has received such wide acceptance that it cannot 
but appeal for adoption to every Sunday-school in the 
land. While the percentage of schools making use of 
it is still comparatively small, the number is rapidly, 



44 '^^^ Home Department 

even phenomenally, growing, and the suggestion is 
that soon there will not be a Sunday-school which 
pretends to be well equipped which will not have its 
Home Department. 

The growth in sentiment concerning it is well illus- 
trated in the minutes of the New York State Sunday- 
School Association for 1894. Attention has been called 
to the fact that in the reports for 1882 to 1884 there were 
but fewreferences to Home Classes. The report for 1894 
is teeming with remarks and allusions to the Home De- 
partment. No one thing so much occupied the thoughts 
of the convention as this. There were two addresses 
on the subject, each being from one who had had 
practical experience in establishing Home Depart- 
ments. The Home Department was spoken of by every 
missionary, and by nearly every district superintendent. 
One hundred and forty-one such Departments were 
mentioned by delegates from the floor. One judicial 
district was cited by the Executive Committee as having 
started two hundred new Departments within the year, 
and as having in all one thousand Home Classes. One 
fifth of all the churches in this district was credited with 
having Home Departments. The Sixth District was 
reported as having 184 Departments with a total mem- 
bership of 7,120, divided into 800 classes with as many 
Visitors. A total of 734 from fifty-two of these Depart- 
ments was reported as transferred to the schools with 
which they were connected. Forty-nine other Sunday- 
schools had manifested their desire to organize Home 
Departments. In the city of Brooklyn it was said that 
fifty-three Departments had been undertaken, and that 



The Home Department 45 

in them there was a membership of 1,800. By means 
of a canvass in which all the denominations joined, 
twenty-seven Departments had been established in the 
town of Stockbridge, into which 1,400 members had 
been gathered. The total membership in the Depart- 
ments throughout the state was put at about 20,000. 
Manifestly a great change had taken place with regard 
to the estimate placed upon the value of this extension 
work. Probably an examination of other state Sunday- 
school reports would exhibit the same adoption of the 
Home Department. In 1905 New York reported 
1,062 Home Departments with 60,336 members ; Con- 
necticut reported 235 Home Departments with 9,730 
members ; Massachusetts reported 682 Home Depart- 
ments with 26,959 members, etc., and this phenomenal 
growth continues. 

The way that the Home Departm.ent is being adopted 
and pushed by the denominations is equally striking. 
At the Methodist General Conference in 1905 it was 
reported that their Sunday-schools had enrolled 185,- 
000 members. The Baptists must have nearly, if not 
quite, as many, while the Presbyterians tabulate 75,000, 
It is estimated that there are not less than 500,000 
Home Department Quarterlies now published, pre- 
pared with special care for those who study the 
lessons at home. Of these 75,000 are issued by the 
Presbyterians, 1^0,000 by the Methodists, 75,000 by 
the Baptists, lesser numbers by other denominations^ 
though about all are furnishing more or less, and 
some independent publishers rank well with the higher 
figures. Let us add right here that Home Depart- 



46 The Home Department 

ment requisites are now published in foreign lan- 
guages, as follows : In the Swedish, by the Swedish 
Mission Publishing House, Chicago, 111. ; in the 
German, by Mattill & Lamb, Cleveland, Ohio ; in 
Italian, by Odardo Yallo, publisher of the Liberia 
Claudiana, 51, Via dei Serragli, Firenze, Italy. Those 
in Bohemian can be obtained of Rev. Dr. Clarke, 
secretary of the American Board, Prague, Bohemia, 
Austria. 

This adoption of the Home Department, however, 
has not come about by publication alone. It is the 
result of indefatigable pushing. Dr. W. A. Duncan has 
not rested in forcing it upon public attention. Others 
have indeed advocated it, and to them due credit must 
be given. In addition to starting the original Home De- 
partment, Dr. Dike has done much for its success with 
pen and voice. His articles in The Pilgrim Teacher, 
The Sunday School Times, The Andover Review, and 
other periodicals have effectually presented the Home 
Department to many thousands of readers. In adopt- 
ing it for The Congregational Sunday-School and Pub- 
lishing Society Dr. Dunning gave it a great uplift, and 
always has contributed to it the full measure of his 
wide influence. The successful introduction of the 
Home Department in Connecticut must be ascribed to 
W. H. Hall, the secretary of the Connecticut State 
Sunday-School Association, and in Massachusetts to 
J. N. Dummer, then State Sunday-School Secretary. 
In New York the late Timothy Hough, State Secretary, 
Alfred Seely, E. P. St. John, and Miss Grace E. Gris- 
wold labored not in vain in the planting of Home De- 



The Home Department 47 

partments, particularly in the Sixth District. Their 
work has been wonderfully effectual. Rev. G. B. F. 
Hallock, of Rochester, N. Y., also has accomplished 
much, first in organizing a model Home Department in 
connection with his church, and then in advocating the 
plan both in effective addresses and articles in religious 
journals. Time and space would fail to notice all who 
have had an honorable part in contributing to the 
triumph of this movement. But while others have 
given it an impetus now and then. Dr. Duncan has 
been urging it all the while. Its success in the largest 
measure is due to his untiring efforts. By circulars, 
by addresses innumerable, by private conversations, 
by taxing correspondence, he has unremittingly kept 
the Home Department before the public until it has 
made its legitimate impression. He has believed in it, 
talked for it, written for it, argued for it, lived for it, as 
no other man has. In the most of instances those 
who have spoken for it have been inspired by him to 
speak. In New York he secured the organization of 
the Woman's Mission Aid Association, without which 
that state never could have been covered with such a 
network of Home Departments. In 1887, at Chicago, 
in an address during its sessions. Dr. Duncan called 
the attention of the International Sunday-School Con- 
vention to the merits of the Home Department. He 
secured the unanimous commendation of that conven- 
tion for it in the meeting which was held at Pittsburg 
in 1890. He was the author of a paper on the subject 
which was read before the World's Sunday-school Con- 
vention, held in London in 1889. Through his advo- 



4^ The Home Department 

cacy at the World's Sunday-School Convention held in 
St. Louis in 1893, the Executive Committee reported 
the following recommendation, which was unanimously 
adopted : — 

Your Committee desires to recognize the Home Depart- 
ment of the Sunday-school as presented by Dr. W. A. 
Duncan of New York, and to commend the same to the 
Sunday-school workers throughout the world. We beHeve 
the adoption of this plan will increase the membership of 
the Sunday-school and extend the benefits of the school to 
many who cannot regularly attend its sessions. 

The sessions of the International Sunday-School Con- 
vention were held at the same place, upon days just 
preceding, and that body, through his efforts, passed 
the following resolution : — 

Resolved^ That it is the sense of this Convention that the 
Home Class Department of the Sunday-school is a most 
practical and efficient method of Sunday-school work, and 
we do most heartily commend its adoption by all schools, 
and urge that all State and Provincial Associations make 
definite and systematic efforts to secure its general adoption. 

Not only has Dr. Duncan labored most effectively to 
establish the Home Department in this country, but he 
has also introduced it abroad. While on a trip to 
Europe in 1891 he presented the plan to the Executive 
Committee of the London Sunday-School Union, an 
organization of great power and influence. It approved 
itself to the Committee and now is incorporated into its 
working scheme. That fact promises a great deal with 
reference not only to popularizing the movement in 
England, but also with regard to propagating it on the 
continent, for that body has missionaries at work in 



The Home Department 49 

various countries in Europe endeavoring to dissipate 
ignorance and superstition by establishing Sunday-schools 
for the study of the Bible. In England the movement 
was originally under the immediate direction of Rev. 
J. B. Paton, LL.D., of Nottingham, who has so effectively 
presented it that other Sunday-school unions are likely 
to adopt it. It has, besides, the powerful advocacy of 
Hon. F. F. Belsey, chairman of the Sunday-School 
Union, known quite well and greatly esteemed on this 
side of the water. The Home Department, which he 
established while connected with the Congregational 
Sunday-school at Rochester, is probably one of the larg- 
est and most efficient in England. Prior to the World's 
Sunday-School Convention in 1898, a number of others 
were organized, one with a membership of two hundred 
being reported in connection with the school at Not- 
tingham, whose pastor is Rev. W. Crosbie. At that 
convention the Home Department was presented by 
Dr. Hazard, seconded by Mr. Belsey, and at the 
" Tea '' meeting received a great impulse. Since then 
many Home Departments have been put into operation 
and it is a common thing for this movement to have a 
place upon Sunday-School Convention programs. It 
has been heard from also in France, where it has been 
introduced and where it is likely to make some headway. 
In Bohemia, through Dr. Duncan again, it secured a 
beginning by the labors of Rev. A. W. Clarke, d.d., 
and Rev. J. S. Porter, of Prague. The latter writes of it 
that it is fast making its way. To that country it is 
peculiarly adapted, for the Austrian laws prohibit inde- 
pendent or officially '^ unrecognized " meetings, so that 



5© The Home Department 

the Home Department can accomplish what cannot be 
done through the Sunday-school. In some other Euro- 
pean countries it will be found more feasible to establish 
veritable Home Classes studying the same lesson than it 
will to attempt a Sunday-school. In Bohemia a Home 
Class leaflet is published, called " Pomucka/' which goes 
to many families in Austria, Germany, Russia, and even 
America. While the Russian censor rules out all evan- 
gelical papers, somehow he allows this to pass, so that 
it is studied in the czar's empire by hundreds of 
Bohemians in their homes. The Home Department 
has also found its way to India through Dr. J. L. Phillips 
of the London Sunday-School Union; and thus through 
the energy and persistence of one man this form of 
evangelistic effort has just about belted the globe. 

In this country the multiplication of Home Depart- 
ments was such and the interest in the plan so great that it 
was deemed expedient by a conference of Sunday-school 
workers, representing all portions of the United States 
and Canada, held at Chautauqua in the summer 
of 1892, to organize the International Home Depart- 
ment Association. The full list of officers is given upon 
one of the initial pages. Of course there was but one 
man thought of for the presidency, and he was the one 
by whose untiring persistence the movement had become 
so successful. The, purpose of this Association is to 
promote the formation of Home Departments in all lands 
in connection with evangelical Sunday-schools and 
to increase their efficiency. It is hoped that this Asso- 
ciation will prove to be a powerful agency in accomplish- 
ing the object for which it was formed. Already it has 



The Home Department 51 

issued circulars, distributed information, published nor- 
mal class leaflets, and proposes to increase its efforts as 
the way may open and as circumstances may demand. 

At a meeting of the International Sunday-School 
Executive Committee at Chautauqua in August, 1894, 
with the International Sunday-School Field Workers, the 
Home Department came up for consideration. After a 
presentation of the facts concerning it by Dr. Duncan, 
Mr. B. F. Jacobs, of Chicago, moved that a new depart- 
ment be added to the work of the International Execu- 
tive Committee ; namely, that of the Home Department, 
and that the officers chosen in 1892 be accepted and 
recognized as the officers of the International Home 
Department Association, and that they be authorized to 
issue such circulars, letters, requisites and addresses as 
they may deem necessary for the prosecution, unification 
and development of the work. Mr. Jacobs urged the 
adoption of his motion, saying that he believed this to 
be one of the most important of the new movements in 
Sunday-school work, and that it should be pushed in all 
parts of our land and introduced into all Sunday-schools. 
The resolution was unanimously adopted, and thus the 
International Home Department Association became a 
recognized department of the International Sunday- 
School Association, and the Home Department itself 
was commended with all the weight of its influence 
to all Sunday-schools everywhere. The International 
Executive Committee has taken up the work thus 
assigned to it with vigor. Its then Field Secretary, Mr. 
William Reynolds, in the interdenominational meetings 
held by him in almost every portion of the country, did 



52 TTie Home Department 

not fail to make known the aim of the Home Depart- 
ment and to press its adoption as being admirably 
qualified to introduce the study of the Word into homes, 
and so evangelize many a neighborhood. His suc- 
cessors have followed his example. In about every 
convention held under the auspices of the International 
Executive Committee, the Home Department has a place 
upon the program. Its consideration there insures its 
having a place in minor conventions. There are few 
Sunday-school workers now who are not informed con- 
cerning the Home Department and its value. 

The reader now is fully acquainted with the vital facts 
concerning the genesis and development of the Home 
Department. If the story has been rightly told, not 
only has an interest been excited relative to its birth and 
progress, but also a profound impression has been made 
in regard to the evident magnitude of its future. The 
generous seed-sowing of the past, together with the 
persistent and careful cultivation which has followed it, 
is now showing its ripening results, so that the fields 
are becoming white to the harvest. 



Ill 

THE PURPOSE OF THE HOME DEPARTMENT 

I. STATED 

From the preceding pages the readers already must 
have gathered a clear idea of the aim of the Home 
Department, or the history has been but poorly presented. 
Still, it is well to compact that which has been stated in 
general terms into a definition. A definition, if properly 
made, will give a clear conception of the work to be 
done, will stimulate those who engage in that work, and 
will be fruitful in suggesting expedients for its accom- 
plishment. Bearing in mind, then, the importance of 
such a statement, let this definition of the design of the 
Home Department, as now constituted, be carefully 
weighed : — 

The purpose of the Home Deparhnent is to secure in the 
home and elsewhere^ through associated effort in connection 
with the Sunday-school, a general and systematic study of 
the Scriptures. 

Truly, the aim is a great one. It is worthy of all the 
aid which can be given to it by any one. It is inspiring 
to think of the end to be accomplished. The Bible is 
not now generally and systematically studied. For that 
matter, it never has been. Perhaps, on the whole, it 
never has been examined with such fresh and deep 
interest as at the present time. The increased sales and 
distribution of Bibles indicate the new hold which God^s 
Word has taken upon the people. More people are 

53 



54 The Home Department 

studying it than ever before. And yet but few, compara- 
tively, are systematically poring over its pages. The 
Book does not have the place in the home which it 
ought to have. In families generally it is an unstudied 
and almost an unread volume. The newspaper, the 
magazine, the novel crowd it out. This fact is a 
menacing one. Character is determined by reading, and 
character determines one's reading. The kind of litera- 
ture which he devours with avidity shows what one is. 
Strong character cannot be grown out of sensational 
reading. Reverence cannot be cultivated with slangy, 
'^ Bad- Boy" books. Fear of God is not the result of 
the perusal of skeptical arguments. Purity is not 
encouraged by the columns of scandal which appear in 
our daily newspapers. In the reading which comes into 
the home there is much to be commended. Undeniably 
it is better than it used to be, though in negligent fami- 
lies there is still a fearful amount of demoralizing and 
destructive fiction. But where it is reasonably good 
there is needed, besides, the tonic of the Scriptures. 
Only through them will the young be brought up in right- 
eousness, purity, reverence, and the fear of the Lord. 
Wherever the Bible is studied the home is sweetened and 
purified. It is because of this fact that God gave the 
commandment : ^' And these words, which I command 
thee this day, shall be upon thine heart : and thou shaU 
teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of 
them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou 
walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when 
thou risest up " (Deut. 6 : 6, 7). In requiring his words 
to be the r^^ain theme of the household, God was but seek- 
ing to develop the ideal home. The Home Department 



The Purpose of the Home Department 55 

is but an instrument to give effect to this commandment 
of the Lord. It seeks to give the Bible its rightful place 
in the home. 

It will be observed that the definition contemplates 
the general study of the Bible. It would have been 
unwise to speak of its universal study, for that cannot be 
accomplished prior to the dawn of the millennium. 
Whenever the Bible is devoutly searched by every one 
then indeed the triumphant reign of Christ will have 
begun. The aim of the Home Department is to bring 
about the general study of the Bible. And this means 
that it is not an effort to reach the neglected children or 
youth merely, but the men and women as well. It 
addresses itself to every member of society. No Home 
Department has done its full work until it has solicited 
every one, young and old, learned and ignorant, rich and 
poor, not already a Bible student, to join in the study of 
God's Word. 

Again it should be noted that it is aimed to secure the 
systematic study of the Bible. Systematic study is 
better than desultory or even regular reading. Better a 
half hour of close study than a dozen hours of super- 
ficial reading or reading which has merely for its object 
the perusal of the whole Bible in a specified time. It is 
not intended to minimize the value of thoughtful, medi- 
tative, devotional reading of the Scriptures. That is 
beyond estimate. But it is the last result to be obtained. 
It is the act of one who already is in communion with 
God and who desires that communion to be deeper. 
Study of the Scriptures naturally comes first, and a 
pledge to engage in it can be obtained ; the other may 
follow in due time as a result. That, then, is the thing to 



5 6 The Home Department 

be aimed at, with the assurance that if entered into 
earnestly it cannot but affect the heart and life. 

But study, if it be pursued, should be systematic, not 
merely as to time but as to purpose. It should aim to 
get somewhere. Hence it is that the Home Depart- 
ment has been connected with the Sunday-school. The 
lessons in it are selected by the International Lesson 
Committee, who are instructed by the International 
Sunday-school Convention to give to the world the best 
possible course of study in the Bible during the term of 
their existence. The Committee no longer are under 
orders to cover the whole Bible within a specified time, 
and hence can be more thorough in the consideration 
given to any one portion of the Scriptures when it is 
desirable to do so. Under the guidance of that Com- 
mittee a scheme is followed by which at one time one is 
studying the life of Christ in one of the Gospels or in all 
of them ; at another he is tracing out the history of 
Israel, noting the overruling providences of God ; at still 
another he is following the history of the early Church as 
shown in the book of Acts, or considering the doctrines 
of Christianity as laid down in the Epistles. And in his 
study he is aided by the wonderfully full and suggestive 
lesson helps which now are issued by the different 
denominational and lesson publishing houses. Such 
study is both stimulating and attractive, and tends to 
make one search deeper. 

Lastly, the definition emphasizes associated study of 
the Bible. There is a power in the very thought of asso- 
ciation with a multitude of others. The soldier shows it. 
Conscious that he is not to be thought of as a mere unit, 
he is immensely more of a man. Again and again has it 



The Purpose of the Home Department 57 

been exhibited in the history of the International Lesson 
movement. The idea that the same lesson is being 
studied every week by millions of others in all lands has 
been a wonderful inspiration to the individual. Strenu- 
ous efforts have been made by some to get the Sunday- 
schools to take up other series of lessons, but they have 
been unwilling to break step and fall out of the ranks. 
Some have gone out for a while but have returned again, 
missing the sense of companionship with the great mul- 
titude. The Home Department makes use of this 
power. It proffers to every one the privilege of study- 
ing with those who belong to a certain Sunday-school, 
and through them, with that vast host which is engaged 
upon the same text, printed in many different languages. 
Few persons would persistently follow a course of study 
alone, but many will be led to continue if they know 
that many others are pursuing the same course with 
them. The Home Department, therefore, presses the 
thought of associated study of the Scriptures. 

In 1885 with reference to the Home Class Bishop 
Vincent said : — 

If everybody went to church and Sunday-school, a little 
school at home besides for Bible study, would be in order. 
Church and Sunday-school would be worth more because of 
the Home Bible School. The lessons would be better pre- 
pared in advance, better recited at the time, better remem- 
bered afterward. Home would be better because of this 
fireside class — this sitting-room Sunday-school. Church 
and Sunday-school would both be worth more to everybody. 

But then not everybody does go to church and Sunday- 
school, and to him who does not go, the school at home 
becomes invaluable. He will be more likely to go. And he 
will get some good — great good — until he does go- He 



^8 The Home Department 

will get a taste at home of the precious things they have in 
the sanctuary. Sometimes people who want to go, cannot. 
Distance hinders. Weather hinders. Illness hinders. To 
those people the stay-at-home school is a blessing. It passes 
the time away swiftly and pleasantly. Its takes people ** out 
of themselves." It prevents gloominess and melancholia. 
It brings good company into the house — prophets and 
apostles, kings and angels, and the Christ himself. It opens 
great windows that give far-reaching perspectives. A 
Sunday-school at home is a great thing for a home. Let us 
have a country full of such schools. 

There are neighborhoods so far removed from church and 
Sunday-school privileges, that unless the blessings of Bible 
study and religious worship are brought to them they will 
never be reached. It is a long way to town, or to the coun- 
try church or schoolhouse. Parents are indifferent. Neglect 
falls into habit. Children grow up utterly ignorant of law 
and gospel. In such neighborhoods as these there must be 
home Sunday-schools. Somebody must open parlor, sitting- 
room or kitchen and invite the neighbors in. The lesson 
leaves may be ordered, the Bible brought, a few songs 
learned, the lesson for the day studied, and papers and books 
distributed. Think of the neighborhood home schools that 
might be organized, and the amount of work that might be 
done. Think of the new element put into every-day life 
by that school — the consciences quickened, the interest in 
divine things awakened, the better literature distributed, and 
the best religious work carried on. 

The habit of taking an hour at home for personal Bible 
study, whether one goes to the places of public gathering or 
not, is of inestimable value, in the fact that it encourages 
Bible reading apart from the usual church surroundings. In 
seeming a little less publicly religious, it becomes a little 
more personally religious. We are so much inclined to make 
religious observances a thing of places and times and con- 
gregations, that to break loose now and then from the 



The Purpose of the Home Department 59 

regular order — or to break into the regular order with 
personal service of thought and prayer — will make religion 
more real. A Bible reading with song and prayer at home 
on a Sunday afternoon alone, or, better still, with friends 
and kindred, and still better if there are children to be 
enlisted, will be a service of home dedication and a sacred 
feast where the blessings of the kingdom of heaven shall be 
enjoyed. 

Dr. W. A. Duncan, of Syracuse, N. Y., an efficient 
educator, a Congregational layman, Sunday-school secretary 
for his church, and our valued associate in Chautauqua work, 
has recently developed this home school idea in several 
articles, tracts and addresses. We join hands with our 
beloved Congregational brother in this new endeavor after 
more systematic work by the family and by the neighborhood 
in the teaching and study of God's Word.* 

The best fruits of this domestic service will be gathered 
by the family as such. We are not reverent and religious 
enough as families. The responsibility of parents for home 
instruction is in danger of being transferred to outside and 
public institutions. *' Workers" with limp-covered Bibles 
who go to conventions and talk in meetings do good in their 
way. Some of them are very useful. But they cannot do 
mother's work and father's work. And we don't want them 
to attempt it, until we have exhausted every effort to induce 
father and mother to discharge their own duties. Home has 
its own legitimate line of labor. Nowhere else can we 
expect that labor to be efficiently performed. Only when it 
is neglected is there any justification for its attempted charge 
by others. This home Sunday-school idea will tend to put 
into the hearts of parents a sense of their responsibility to 
give their hands practice and deftness in doing the duty God 
requires from them. 

Let us commend the home school as a plan to be made 

^ Here follows the quotation in full of Leaflet No. 6. 



6o The Home Department 

effective. Test it ! Test it at once ! Begin at your home — 
whether you, the reader of these lines, be superintendent, 
teacher, or pupil. Look up neglected children or those who 
for any reason do not go to Sunday-school. Find a place — 
somebody's kitchen or parlor. Appoint a meeting. Get 
lesson and other papers. Begin! 

Whom does the Home Department aim to reach ? It 
seeks to carry the privilege of Bible study to : — 

I. Individuals. — There are many who do not wish 
to join in the study of the Scriptures. The very thought is 
irksome to them. They do not go to the Sunday-school 
because they do not enjoy going. The Home Depart- 
ment can reach them only rarely. But there are many 
who are not indifferent to the value of Bible study, who 
by force of circumstances cannot join in it with those 
who are in the Sunday-school. They may be divided 
into two classes : — 

(i) The Shut-ins, The number of these is larger 
than one would think. There are the aged and infirm. 
It is pitiful to think how much they are left to them- 
selves. In many a home they simply occupy a corner. 
They are made to feel that their days of usefulness are 
entirely gone by. It is hard so to be left out of every- 
thing. An invitation to them to become members of a 
Home Class, which is only a portion of a Home Depart- 
ment belonging to a certain Sunday-school, will in the 
most of cases indeed be welcome. They will be rejoiced 
to know that they still can be associated with others and 
have a place with them. This knowledge will do much 
to dissipate their loneliness and increase their self- 
respect. Already it has brought joy and comfort to 
many. 



The Purpose of the Home Department 6 1 

Of course among the shut-ins are to be included the 
invalids, both recovering and incurable. Time goes 
slowly by to the sick. The tendency with them is to 
morbid dwelling upon their disease. They should be 
given something to do^ not beyond their powers, which 
is cheerful and stimulating, and which will take them out 
of themselves. What can be done better for them than 
to give them a Sunday-school lesson to master ? A little 
work each day upon the lesson, as strength will permit, 
and the leaden-footed moments will take on wings. 
And when the lesson quarterly is put aside there will be 
something to think upon — something which will lift the 
thoughts up towards heaven and which will make either 
living or dying more sweet. If one recovers, it will be 
to greater usefulness ; and if one dies, those lessons will 
illuminate the valley of the shadow of death. 

Then there are the mothers who are kept at home by 
their little children and their household duties. Their 
never-ending round of tasks becomes almost unbearable 
drudgery unless the heart and the mind are stimulated. 
For them the time taken for Bible study is an absolute 
gain. They will be the fresher and the stronger for it. 
When the heart is cheered, duties become light. Christ 
knew what he was saying when he invited the weary and 
the heavy laden to come unto him that they might find 
rest. By all means the mothers should become members 
of the Home Department that they may find new 
strength and cheer in Bible study. And then, too, they 
will be better mothers for so doing — kinder, more 
patient, more loving, wiser. For the sake of the chil- 
dren and the whole household they should be disciples 
of Christ, 



62 The Home Department 

Let not the servants be forgotten. The Sunday dinner 
must be prepared so that it may be ready for those 
coming home from church and Sunday-school. There 
is usually no opportunity for the servants to attend the 
Sabbath-school. Should they be shut out from all its 
privileges? The Home Department offers to them the 
opportunity of studying the Sunday-school lessons 
at such odd moments in the week as they can com- 
mand, and counting that study just as though they were 
present in the school. Thus the parlor and the kitchen 
may be associated together, and each be the better for 
the fact. 

(2) The Shut-outs, Here is another large class. The 
shut-ins a-re those who are unable to leave home to 
attend the Sunday-school ; the shut-outs are those who 
are kept out because of their occupations. A simple 
enumeration of some of them is sufficient. There are 
the commercial travelers, the railroad conductors, brake- 
men, engineers, newsboys, railway postal clerks, telegraph 
operators, hotel clerks, drug clerks, steamer officers and 
employees, army officers and soldiers, civil engineers and 
their assistants, boatmen, etc. etc. Many of these spend 
their Sundays in different places. They could not attend 
any one Sunday-school, even if they were inclined to do 
so. But by the arrangements made by the Home 
Department any one can be still connected with one 
special school, no matter where he may be, and be cred- 
ited with his study of the lesson as though appearing 
with the rest. Whether he is on the rail or the ocean or 
in camp he can take out his Quarterly and soon put 
himself into sympathetic connection with those at home. 
Those lessons while on the wing will do much to steady 



The Purpose of the Home Department 63 

the wanderer and to turn aside the temptations which 
especially beset him. 

To the above a third class might be added — the 
transients. They are those who are merely stopping for 
a while in a place, Hke students in academies and col- 
leges and the boarders in the cities. Their homes are 
elsewhere. While they are away from them they are apt 
to drop many of the good old habits which they would 
have kept up had they not come away. They attend 
church irregularly and Sunday-school not at all. It is 
the business of the Home Department to look them up 
and re-establish the old customs. 

IL The home. — Some famihes are situated so far 
from church and Sunday-school that they cannot attend 
either service, or more than one. Others are in small 
communities where there are no church or Sunday-school 
privileges, or live in localities where they are isolated from 
all the benefits of society. To such families the Home 
Department is an inestimable boon. It brings them into 
connection with thousands of others. They feel the im- 
pulse of the spiritual life which throbs in the church and 
Sunday-school. This mental and moral stimulus is just 
what they need. It is like bringing into the home a 
telegraph wire which connects it with the great world 
without, though it may be upon some lonely mountain 
top or in some unfrequented vale* 

Again, in some places the snow is so deep during the 
winter and the cold so intense, that the Sunday-school 
has to be given up for the time. In all these cases the 
Home Department offers associated home study in the 
place of study in the Sunday-school. Each family 
becomes a Home Class, stimulated in its efforts by the 



54 The Home Department 

knowledge that there are many other classes like it, each 
one making its quarterly report to the superintendent of 
the Home Department with which it is connected, and 
receiving in turn information as to the progress made by 
the Department as a whole, and when the Sunday-school 
is in session, getting reports from the main school. 
When the Sunday-school is forced by the inclemency of 
the weather to suspend, the Home Department practi- 
cally keeps it going without dropping a lesson, so that 
in resuming not a Sunday has been really lost. That is 
much better than to have an intermission for three 
months, during which the thoughts have not been turned 
towards the Scriptures at all. In the one case it takes 
considerable time to get things going ; in the other the 
steam is all up and the train moves right off. 

So, too, in the summer when a family goes off on a 
vacation, instead of dropping out of the Sunday-school 
altogether, its members can for the time being join the 
Home Department, and thus keep in touch with their 
own home school, taking up their relationship to the 
main department again upon their return. 

Whether the whole family join in making a Home 
Class or only one member of it unite with others outside 
to make one, the study of the Bible is introduced into 
the home. If there be only a single one of the house- 
hold engaged in the systematic study of the Bible in 
connection with the Sunday-school, that is of itself no 
small gain. The knowledge of the fact and the sight of 
that regular effort at mastering the weekly Sunday-school 
lesson cannot fail of having a beneficial effect lipon the 
rest of the household. Much can be hoped for where a 
pledge has been secured from but one to study the 



The Purpose of the Home Department 65 

lesson. It may — in some cases it surely will — lead to 
the study of the same lesson by others in the home, to 
the conversion of one or more or all, and to the setting 
up of the family altar. And thus the Home Department 
will in many instances make over the home. 

III. The town. — The term is used with relation, 
not to a village, but to the district which is so called. In 
early times in New England the parish of the church was 
coextensive with the town. Indeed the town meeting 
was also the parish meeting, for it was summoned to 
elect a deacon or call a minister or build a meeting- 
house, as well as to elect a member of the General Court 
or build a bridge or assess a tax. In those days the 
parish was thoroughly looked after with relation both to 
civil and ecclesiastical matters. With the breaking up 
of this relationship of the church to the town, the 
parish of a church has become so indefinite that now it 
practically means all that territory which it holds and 
looks after. The presence of a number of churches in 
a town so distributes the responsibiUty that it rests but 
lightly upon each one, and frequently the duty of over- 
sight is neglected by all. In some country towns in the 
older states the churches have one by one died out, leav- 
ing no church organization or Sunday-school to look 
after the spiritual concerns of the community. That 
fact is a serious one, and one of the grave problems 
which has to be solved is as to what shall be done for 
the country towns where such a state of things exists. 

In each of the cases suggested the Home Department 
may be a most useful organization. Where there are a 
number of churches which have not been fully looking 
after the field in which they are placed, a joint canvass 



66 The Home Department 

by them under the Home Department plan will not only 
let them know what are the facts relative to the town, 
and gather into them those who need only a little urging 
to come in, but will systematically follow it up, so that 
each church shall know once every three months through 
its Home Department Visitors what families have come 
in or gone out or should be especially seen by the 
pastor. A corps of such Visitors going over the field 
once every quarter may be of incalculable assistance to 
the pastor and of advantage to the church. Where all 
the churches have died out, if a Sunday-school cannot 
be established the Home Department can connect the 
families with the churches in the next live parish, and so 
not leave them entirely without the quickening influence 
of the Word. 

n. ILLUSTRATED 

I. The aged. — At Gilsum, N. H., two aged women 
in feeble health, members of the church, but who never 
again expected to cross its threshold, were more than 
glad to become members of the Home Department. It 
brought them, the Visitor says, in touch with the 
Sunday-school once more, and they felt that they were 
having a part in its work from Sunday to Sunday. '' It 
is a new link to bind them to the church they love so 
well." One of them was a pupil in what is believed to 
have been the first Sunday-school established in the state 
of New Hampshire. 

The Congregational Sunday-school of Franklin, Dela- 
ware County, N. Y., in organizing its Home Department 
induced nine persons over seventy years of age to 
join. 



The Purpose of the Home Department 67 

In canvassing for a Home Department in connection 
with the Prospect Street Congregational Sunday-school of 
Newburyport, Mass., an old lady ninety-seven years of age 
was found who gladly enrolled herself in a Home Class, 
saying, " I Ve wanted to join some such thing for a long 
while, so as to study the Bible with those who are in the 
Sunday-school, but I did n't think you would get around 
to it in my day." 

At North Brookfield, Mass., on Children's Day, when 
the roll of the Home Department was called, among the 
hundred responding was one man ninety-six years of 
age. 

In Binghamton, N. Y., an old lady joined the Home 
Class, who was but just able to get around her room by 
pushing a wheeled chair. To her the privilege of 
studying the lesson in connection with the Sunday- 
school was greatly prized. When the Visitor came, 
bringing a new Quarterly, she said : '' Why, you 're a 
long time coming ! I studied my book through in a 
month, and it 's such a comfort to me ! Seems as if I 
was somebody again ! " When told that her Quarterly 
was for three months, she disappointedly replied : 
" Oh, is it ? I wanted you to come oftener." 

II. Invalids. -— In estabhshing a Home Department 
in a town in New Hampshire the first one invited to join 
was a lady in poor health. She rejoiced at the oppor- 
tunity thus afforded her, saying that her husband would 
study with her, and adding, ^* You don't know how I 
feel when I hear the bell ring on Sunday morning; I 
want so much to go to church." 

In Otsego County, N. Y., an invalid was enrolled in a 
Home Class of five. Recovering, her first call was upon 



68 The Home Department 

the Visitor who induced her to join ; and to her she 
said : " I thank you for helping me to study God's 
Word. I have found Christ, and I want to join the 
church/' 

On joining the Home Department said one who had 
been a '^ shut-in " for ten years: '^ It seems good to feel 
that I belong with Christians and am doing something 
in common with them." 

A member of the Home Department connected with 
Dr. E. N. Packard's church, Syracuse, N. Y., while on 
a dying bed, said: ''Tell my pastor that my home study 
record is full up to date." 

IIIo The isolated. — Mr. A. Jardine, of Winnipeg, 
Manitoba, has found the Home Department an admi- 
rable substitute for the Sunday-school during the winter. 
The temperature at times there touches forty-six de- 
grees below zero, rendering it unsafe for the children 
to be out. For the time they are practically isolated. 
So, too, are those who live too far away to attend the 
school even in more moderate weather. Among all 
these Mr. Jardine has sought to keep up interest in the 
study of the lesson by means of Home Classes. His 
scholars are all ready in the spring to begin Sunday- 
school at the high-water mark. 

In the heart of the '• piney woods " of Lee County^ 
Alabama, writes Minnie E. Kennedy : " About eighteen 
miles from the railroad is situated a little church ' Wa- 
toola.' The people among whom it is placed are 
honest and thrifty, but have had but few advantages 
with regard to education. They are sparsely scattered 
over a wide territory. Several years ago, through the 



The Ftirpose of the Home Department 69 

representatives of their Sunday-school to a county con- 
vention held at Opelika, they learned of the Home 
Department. One was promptly organized and vigor- 
ously carried on. At the last report presented by this 
school at the county convention this department cov- 
ered an area of twenty square miles. As their delegate 
expressed it, ^ The territory has been gone over with 
a fine-toothed comb.' The school had increased from 
a membership of about forty-five to about two hundred 
and thirty-one, including Cradle Roll. The Cradle 
Roll was carried on jointly with the Home Depart- 
ment, the same Visitors serving for both." 

Connected with the Sunday-school at Pullman, Wash., 
is a Home Department which at last accounts was 
reaching twenty-five persons, seven of whom were not 
near enough to attend the school or church, and twelve 
of whom were in the mountain camps, ninety miles 
away. It takes some correspondence to sustain such 
a Department, but how welcome it must be to those 
lonely miners ! 

The Western rural pastor, who finds his own people 
scattered over miles of territory, and newer settlers un- 
reached by ordinary church agencies, knows how to 
appreciate the Home Department. In South Dakota, 
for instance, the Rev. A. G. Hunt of Aberdeen, has 
found this home study method a means of help in all 
directions as he thus points out : — 

We find new families every month and not only interest 
them in studying the Bible, but try to encourage the young 
people to work for a high school or college education. 
Some of the brightest pupils in these schools are from fami- 



70 The Home Departme7tt 

lies found and encouraged through our Home Department 
work. It is but a few days since a farmer thanked us for 
taking an interest in his family, and said, " We now have 
family worship and our home is happy." Two of his chil- 
dren are now teaching school, and will pay the mortgage on 
their farm, which he could not do. Home Department 
means this to several homes in this end of our State. We 
found this family about four years ago. As the work is all 
done in a very common way and the results are no more 
than may be in all places, we do not regard this as of spe- 
cial interest, and it is no more than any church can do. 

The loneliness of the isolated can hardly be better 
illustrated than by the following letter to Rev. C. W. 
Hall, of Elbowoods, North Dakota, from one of the 
scattered cattlemen of that region after he had become 
a member of the Home Department : — 

We have tried to keep our spiritual lives strong, but as 
for me, the isolation from all spiritual association tells. I 
am not as strong as I ought to be. I am alone with one 

man a great deal of the time, not going to H even (a 

station twenty-five miles away), for two months at a time ; 

and when I am in H , it is not much better, as there is no 

preaching, and no Sunday-school to attend. I do not be- 
lieve I have heard over a dozen sermons in the six and a 
half years I have been on the ranch. I sent the quarterly 
to my wife and children, as I get the lessons in a newspaper. 
I should like to be able'-to go regularly once more to hear 
good spiritual preaching and to prayer-meeting, as we once 
were able to do. 

The Home Department of the First Baptist Sunday- 
school of Elmira, N. Y., has in it three members who 
are totally blind, three families living on the plains in 
Montana, and one neighborhood Home Class composed 
of those who live a great distance from church, and 



The Purpose /)/ the Home Department 7 1 

who meet at the house of one of their number, who 
acts as leader. 

In a township in New York State, where there is no 
Sunday-school, a lady who is crippled with rheumatism 
and who has been a *' shut-in '' for years is a member of a 
Home Department of a Sunday-school forty miles away. 

A Home Department in Connecticut has in its mem- 
bership eight persons who have removed to Utah. In 
this way the old ties and the old religious influences 
are kept alive. 

A farmer's wife, living eight miles from New Milford, 
Conn., heard of the Home Department, and concluded 
to start one. She lives four miles from church in a 
sparsely settled community. Though busy with many 
cares, she enlisted thirteen, three of whom are in Col- 
orado. From the Colorado contingent has grown a 
Sunday-school fully equipped and officered. Recently 
she invited the local members to spend the evening at 
her house. Ten responded, and the time passed de- 
lightfully in talking over the lessons and in the good 
fellowship called out by association in study. 

IV. Mothers. — Now and then letters have been re- 
ceived from mothers, which show their interest in this 
movement. One of the last was from a widow with eight 
children. She wants not only to study the lessons with 
her own children, but proposes to organize a Home Class 
to consist of mothers, invalids, and children quarantined 
on account of sickness. What a blessing she has it in 
her heart to be ! 

V. Pastors. — How the Home Department may help 
pastors is illustrated by two incidents in Connecticut 



72 The Home Department 

A lady past middle age, not a professor of religion, 
joined a Home Department. Meeting her with her 
Quarterly in her hand, the pastor found it very easy to 
approach her on the subject of religion through her 
Bible study. In the other case a woman had been with 
difficulty persuaded to join the Home Department, but 
became interested in the study of the Scriptures after she 
had done so. Formerly she had repelled all the efforts 
of her pastor to talk with her on the subject of personal 
religion. Noting that her reports of home study were 
good, the pastor commended her for them. Calling upon 
her after a few months, he found her entirely accessible 
to conversation and she was glad to have him pray 
with her. 

One man, who had been alienated from the church, 
after joining the Home Department came back with his 
family, and now appears with them regularly in the old 
family pew. 

Before his death Rev. R. D. Metcalf had a Home 
Department in New York State nine miles wide by 
fifteen long ! In two others established by him he had 
three hundred students enrolled. One result of a Home 
Department organized by him while pastor at East Fair- 
field, Vt., was the beginning of a Sunday-school at East 
Fletcher, which was started as a branch of the school 
at Bakersfield. It gathered about fifty at its first ses- 
sion, only three of those present of school age ever 
having been members of a Sunday-school before. See 
the chapter on the Home Department and the Pastor. 

VI. The parish. — The superintendent of a Sun- 
day-school in Vermont writes that in his Home Depart- 



The Purpose of the Home Department 73 

ment there are thirty-six families, only ten of which ever 
come to church and twenty-six of which have in all forty- 
six children that would be without Sunday-school privi- 
leges except for this method of reaching them. Some 
of the families live five miles away from the school. He 
says: *' I never saw anything like the Home Depart- 
ment for reaching every nook and corner of the parish." 

When the Home Department plan was adopted by 
the churches at Prattsburg, N. Y., it was pushed by 
them co-operatively. The place is a village of only six 
hundred inhabitants, and has three churches with a 
membership of less than four hundred. A force of 
forty-five Visitors was put into the field, each one report- 
ing to his own Sunday-school superintendent, but each 
superintendent notifying the other superintendents of 
families preferring a different denominational connection 
than his own. As the result of the canvass, 201 joined 
Home Classes, distributed as follows : Presbyterians 
90 ; Methodists 7 1 ; Baptists 40. Here was one can- 
vass instead of three, and the impression made by the 
comity exhibited must have been far better than would 
have been the case had each church visited the whole 
parish solely in its own interests. 

Writing of the Home Department, Rev. W. R. Suther- 
land, then of Rossburn, Manitoba, Can., said: — 

We as missionaries cannot do our work in scattered dis- 
tricts without it. Our presbytery includes a large district of 
thinly-settled country. The great majority of our people 
live in the country. We have Sunday-schools along the 
railroad the year round, but in all this district there were not 
more than eight or ten schools last winter, while fully one- 



74 The Home Department 

half the people beyond the railroad have no Sunday-school 
in summer. Take summer and winter together and it equals 
half the people beyond the reach of Sunday-schools in this 
presbytery. Our towns are small and the country large. 
Now the Home Department is so plastic that it adapts itself 
with equal ease and simplicity to the wants of scattered 
districts, where you can have no school at all as a center of 
operation, as it does to the cities. For example, we send a 
missionary to a scattered mission field, where no Sunday- 
school can be efficiently maintained, and he can in twelve 
months' time have as large a percentage of the people study- 
ing the Sunday-school lesson at home as in the average town 
or village. I had eighty in one field, some of them six miles 
from the nearest family. By means of this grand scheme we 
can have our whole scattered mission field one Sunday-school 
and all bound together with the school spirit. 

Mr. Sutherland, now of Yorkton, Assiniboia, the 
superintendent of the single Provincial Department 
which covers the whole of that country, under date 
of March 17, 1905, writes thus: — 

The English speaking people are widely scattered among 
the ranches and separated among the foreigners. The 
Superintendent of the Department has great difficulty in 
obtaining visitors on this account, but has the cooperation 
of five denominational missionaries to aid him when visiting 
these communities, and also in conducting reviews at the 
commencement of such services as they may hold in the dif- 
ferent localities. Lessons are learned at home and reviewed 
at the public service. Nearly all the English speaking 
Protestants are quite willing to adopt the plan, and the 
parents readily agree to teach their children. The Pro- 
vincial Superintendent tries to visit all of them annually. 
He says this plan is proving a great boon to many of our 
isolated families and individuals. One orphan family of six 
children, from seven to fifteen years, live with their grand- 



The Purpose of the Home Department 75 

parents and are taught by an invalid aunt. The super- 
intendent spent two hours with them this winter and did not 
require to use the lesson helps while reviewing the quarter's 
lessons. Their interest, attention and spiritual insight were 
all good. Without this department they would receive little 
if any religious instruction. 

The Church, he says, is well able to carry this scheme to 
every family and individual in the land as quickly as a gov- 
ernment takes a census. He has 1063 members in his ex- 
tended Home Department, an increase of 280 in three years. 

VII. Membership. — The Sunday-school at Cale- 
donia, N. D., had for membership but one man and a 
few women, and yet it organized three other Sunday- 
schools in its vicinity. It also started a Home Depart- 
* ment through a stage-driver, who offered to deliver the 
lesson helps and papers to any along his route who 
would join. From that Home Department grew a 
Sunday-school. 

The Home Departments of the Carrington and Mel- 
ville schools, N. D., proved also to be prolific seed. 
After being carried on by them for two or three years, 
little Sunday-schools were organized out of them, which 
set up for themselves — a strawberry way of propagation. 

The Presbyterian Sunday-school of Lebanon, Ind., 
without going outside of the families already connected 
with its school and congregation, enrolled over a hun- 
dred members. 

The Home Department of the school at Hyde Park, 
Mass., numbers 239, and has 17 Visitors. Dr. Andrew 
W, Archibald, d.d., while pastor, testified that this De- 
partment was of great value to him in his work of visita- 
tion, and that it had a marked effect in securing better 



j6 The Home Department 

study in the school by bringing the home into co-opera- 
tion with the teachers. It also added to the member- 
ship of the main department. 

At the present writing (1905) Connecticut is reported 
to have 235 Home Departments with a total member- 
ship of nearly 9,730. W. H. Hall, late Secretary of 
the Connecticut State Sunday-School Association, says 
in one of his reports : '^ The Home Department has 
demonstrated in Connecticut its power to reach and 
influence in favor of Bible study people of all classes 
and conditions, many of whom are not approachable in 
any other way. Its adaptability to varying and preva- 
lent conditions is universally acknowledged. It inva- 
riably tends to the upbuilding of the Sunday-school in 
membership, in interest, and in power." 

A Yale theological student, just after his graduation, 
was called to one of the old hill towns in New England. 
He found that there were ninety-six persons in the 
Sunday-school. Organizing a Home Department, one 
year afterwards the statistics of the school were as 
follows: — In the main school, 116; in the Home De- 
partment, 136 — total, 252. 

A Home Department in Pennsylvania, in the city 
of Reading, numbering over two hundred, had among 
its membership ladies, business and professional men, 
an army officer, and a member of Congress. 

Tioga County, New York, with no large cities in it, 
has twenty-seven Home Departments, with a total mem- 
bership of 976. Broome County, N. Y., has twenty-five 
Home Departments with 967 members, eight of which 
are in Binghamton. Five of the eight churches of 



TTie Purpose of the Home Department 77 

Cortland, N. Y., canvassed the village, securing 250 for 
their Home Departments. The three Sunday-schools 
of McGrawville; a village in Cortland County, united 
in canvassing their territory, and in ten days' time 
obtained 87 members for their Home Departments. 

The superintendent of the Home Department con- 
nected with the South Church, New Britain, Conn., 
writes : *^ When the work was undertaken (about four 
years ago), it was thought by many that it was not only 
an unnecessary work, but that it would interfere with 
the main school, and draw from our numbers. Instead 
of that the result has been to increase the membership 
of the school. The inevitable result of awakening in- 
terest in Bible study at home seems to be to bring to 
Sunday-school all who can come. Of 337, who up to 
this date (1895) have joined the Home Department, we 
have at present about 270 members. Nearly thirty 
have come into the Sunday-school, ten have died, quite 
a number have left town, and a few have dropped out. 

'* Among our members are many elderly people and 
invalids, also mothers with young children, who though 
unable to attend the main school are glad to be con- 
nected with it. We have also many foreigners, parents 
of children in our school, who seldom enter a church 
themselves, and who are practically without the gospel. 
Some of them cannot read English, but are pleased with 
a Quarterly in their own language. We provide forty 
German and Swedish Quarterlies. We also send an 
envelope to each member with the Quarterly and report 
card, but with the distinct understanding that all con- 
tributions are voluntary. Last year the offerings 



78 The Home Department 

amounted to $115, and after paying all expenses we 
had $70 for misssionary work." 

This same department, May, 1905, has 420 members, 
with ^2) Visitors and 12 messenger boys. It provides 
55 German and 5 Swedish Quarterlies for those who 
cannot read English. The offerings for the past year 
were $105.79. 

The Home Department of the First Methodist Epis- 
copal Church at Crawford, Neb., now has two hundred 
and fifty members, Charles Wayne Ray thus writes 
concerning it : — 

I have heard the criticism that it will injure the Sunday- 
school; but I will say that there is no work that will so 
build up a school as the Home Department I have a num- 
ber of people who took the Quarterlies, became interested, 
and resigned their membership and began attending the 
Sunday-school; but it has not taken a single person out of 
the school. People like to have the books, and say they do 
not know how they could get along without them. It in- 
creases the influence of the church and encourages people 
to read their Bibles. 

Many pastors and workers will ask, "Does it pay?" 
After one year's experience I can say we have supplied the 
department with Quarterlies, envelopes and stamps during 
the whole year, and besides this we have paid ^28 on our 
church debt. How do we secure this money? We tell the 
people there are no charges, but if they want to give any- 
thing to carry on the work, we will be very thankful for their 
offering. Some give a ^i — this is the highest — and some 
give nothing, but we do not expect money from all. 

This will mean a very great amount of work, which I 
think the pastor, with the assistance of some one else, can do 
better than to leave it entirely in others' hands. This work 
will fill the churches quicker than anything that excites and 



The Purpose of the Home Department 79 

is sensational. This is a day when we are to carry the gos- 
pel to those who will not come to hear it May this work 
spread until non-churchgoers everywhere have God's Word 
at their doors 1 

VIII. Results. — In Binghamton, N„Y.,the Visitors 
in canvassing for the Home Department found a man 
so given over to drink, that, losing all hope of regaining 
his manhood, he had attempted suicide. While con- 
fined to his bed from the injuries which he had inflicted 
upon himself, they induced him to join the Home De- 
partment. His study of the Bible led to his conver- 
sions, to his victory over his depraved appetite, and to 
his joining a Methodist church in that city. 

In the same city a backslider who had not attended 
any church for years became a member of a Home 
ClasSj and soon afterwards resumed his attendance 
upon the services of the church. When dying he ex- 
pressed a good hope in Christ, and attributing his sal- 
vation to that agency J exclaimed : ^* God bless the man 
who first thought of the Home Class ! '' 

Professor M. M. Goodman, ph.d., Lynchburg, Va., 
writes as follows : — 

There has been added to our Sunday-school a Home De- 
partment, which is making wonderful strides, by introducing 
Bible study into the homes of those unable to attend the 
main school. This new feature of Bible work is reaching 
thousands of people who a few years ago had known nothing 
about the study of God's Word since they were children, 
and many who never knew what it was to study the Bible. 
The literature furnished for this branch of work has reached 
many, and no doubt has been the cause of souls coming to 
Christ, 



8o 77ie Home Department 

Mothers who are at the head of large families, with house- 
hold duties, who are unable to attend any Sunday-school, 
are now regular members of the Home Department, They 
eagerly seek the work, and make the very best students. 
We have known large families brought into the main school 
by having the mother start the work in her own home. 
Fathers who were careless and indifferent as to the welfare 
of their own children have been made to see the error of 
their way by this great work. 

We can point to fathers who a few years ago would have 
laughed in your face at the mere suggestion of such work, 
who are to-day members of the regular Sunday-school, hav- 
ing been brought there by first joining the Home Depart- 
ment. Many are the happy faces of fathers with their little 
children, greeting us every Sunday morning, ready for the 
great work, who but a few years back would have grumbled, 
and framed a thousand and one excuses to keep out of Sun- 
day-school. This great change was brought about by the 
introduction of God's Word into the home through and by 
the Home Department, 

In Chenango County, N. Y., the Home Department 
was introduced into a small Baptist Sunday-school. 
The pastor, in testifying to its remarkable success, 
spoke particularly of one case. He said that a man 
who refused to go to church and who had openly 
scoffed at religion was induced to join the Home De- 
partment, and that as a consequence he had become a 
regular attendant upon the church services and that he 
had transferred his membership from the Home De- 
partment to the pastor's Bible class. 

In New Hampshire a business man, when asked to 
join a Home Class, said: *^ I suppose you hope that we 
will go into the Sunday-school by and by — and we ought 



27i^ Purpose of the Home Department 8i 

to." Another, hearing the matter mentioned from the 
pulpit brought three names besides his own, saying, "I 
thought that I would like to be in such a class.*' 

In Syracuse, N. Y., in connection with Good Will 
Sunday-school a Home Class was formed in a family 
where the father was a drinking man and in the habit of 
beating his wife. He would not allow the children to 
attend any Sunday-school, but would permit a teacher to 
come into his own home and instruct them. That 
teacher said that one Sunday the mother came out of the 
bedroom with her face covered with blood from the 
brutal blows inflicted by her husband. The Home 
Class was the first reformative agency to obtain an 
admission to that home. 

The Home Department of the Congregational Sun- 
day-school of East Chicago, Ind., was organized in the 
fall of 1898. Its superintendent thus bears witness: — 

By earnest, personal work, our membership has grown to 
104, including several nationalities. We find all gladly study- 
ing the lessons, and eagerly looking for the quarterly visit 
of pastor and superintendent with the new Lesson Helps. 
Our special prayer has been for the enlightenment and ele- 
vation of the members through a study of the Word. Some 
have been led step by step into the higher life, by personal 
study and teaching. Some have been led by love of their 
children whom the Home Department discovered and sooner 
or later placed in the main school. There have been some 
notable transformations due to Home Department work. 
Homes are cleaner, tempers and habits more carefully 
guarded, and in some cases the liquor habit abandoned, by 
these members who have learned of God. Space forbids 
mention of all the good work directly due to our Home 
Department. 



82 The Home Departmeni 

In the Washington Street Sunday-school, Toledo, 
Ohio, Marion Lawrance, superintendent, there is a Home 
Department which has members in eight different states. 
The fact that after one moves away into another state he 
keeps up his connection with it shows how strong a hold 
the Home Department has. 

A young woman absent from home at work induced 
her father's family to join the Home Department. Four 
other families in the neighborhood soon united in the 
study, none of which had been in the habit of attending 
any religious service. Within a year the parents in these 
families united with the nearest church. 

The superintendent of the Home Department at 
Richford, N. Y., writes that in an out district, far from 
any church or Sunday-school, where her assistant at 
first feared to approach any one with the suggestion of 
joining the Home Department, the people have become 
so interested as to gather in little neighborhood classes, 
meeting in the different schoolhouses for the purpose of 
studying the lesson. The pastor adds that in one of 
these neighborhoods there are only two professing Chris- 
tians, and that one of the roughest men in the town, a 
man about sixty-five, lives there. Though the latter 
is still rough, he has much improved, having become 
interested in Bible study, and having changed from 
favoring license to opposing it. His influence has been 
quite a factor in making the town go no-license. 

When attending a county convention, Miss Clara 
Louise Ewatt, State Primary Secretary for Ohio, spoke 
on the Home Department. While on the train going 
home a delegate pointed out a church on a hillside and 
told her the following story : — 



The Purpose of the Home Department 83 

T live in a town about ten miles from here, and two years 
ago we organized a Home Department in our Sunday-school. 
Among the people who were secured as members was the 
mother of one of our primary children. She was a rough, 
coarse woman, whose conversation was mingled with oaths, 
and she seemed an unpromising member. She began to study 
the Bible lessons, and soon a change was noticed in her life, 
but in a few months they moved away, and we thought that 
we had lost our grip upon that home. However, it was not 
long until we had a letter from her, telling of her continued 
interest in Sunday-school work. The letter was a " cry from 
Macedonia," because it told of the many children in the 
neighborhood and of the closed church where no meetings 
were held. The Home Department superintendent saw a 
great opportunity here, and managed to go to that neighbor- 
hood for a visit. Several Christian families were discovered, 
a meeting called, and a Sunday-school organized. It has 
grown and prospered, and in the church which I pointed out 
to you a few minutes ago, there is now a flourishing Sunday- 
school and preaching services. More than that, there is a 
mining settlement back among the hills where a Sunday- 
school has been organized in a schoolhouse, and the children 
there are for the first time in their lives being taught Bible 
truths. Our former Home Department member has been 
the most active worker in both these schools. 

IX. Self-Support. — There are few Home De- 
partments which call at all heavily on the funds of the 
main school, while many, and probably the majority, 
soon become more than self-supporting. At the close of 
the year 1900, the treasurer of the Home Department 
of the Throop Avenue Sunday-school, Brooklyn, N. Y., 
which then had twenty Visitors and 161 members, re- 
ported that the total contributions during the year were 
$144.18 ; the expenditures were $55.53, leaving a clean 



84 ^^ Home Department 

surplus of $88.65, or only a fraction less than 160 per 
cent on the money invested I This handsome dividend, 
$88.65, '^^^ turned over to the main school. How 
would a business man feel if he made annual dividends 
like that? Yet many Sunday-schools think they 
** can't afford " to start a Home Department and buy 
the supplies ! 

X. Large Departments. — Miss Mary L. Kay, 
Dixon, 111., member of the Home Department Com- 
mittee of the State Sunday-School Association, is super- 
intendent herself of a Home Department of nearly nine 
hundred members. She says of it : — 

I can report progress, such as increase in number of 
lessons studied, visits to Sunday-school, and number of 
members transferred to the main school during the last 
quarter. 

In South Dakota there is a State Home Department, 
the superintendent of which reported in 1900 that he 
had personally visited eight hundred families. 

One Sunday-school in Ore Hill, Conn., reports a 
Home Department of nearly eight hundred members, 
reaching almost every family in the township. One 
feature of interest is that it has a Correspondence 
Class of more than one hundred members, many of 
them living in New York State, and others in Chicago 
and the far West, with whom communication is kept 
up by the frequent use of the mail. 

In Steuben County, N. Y., there is a Township 
Home Department numbering nearly eight hundred, 
which virtually embraces all inhabitants of the town- 
ship. This work is under the supervision of one super- 



77i£ Purpose of the Home Deparfment 85 

intendent who personally visits each member every 
three monthso An annual grove convention is held 
and has been addressed by the Rev. A. F. Schauffler, 
D.D., and other Sunday-school workers. It is the only 
Sunday-school organization in the township, as it is 
a sparsely settled community without any villages or 
hamlets. 

Mrs. Charles Craig, of Rockford, 111., a busy house- 
keeper, has a Home Department which in 1904 num- 
bered four hundred and eleven members and was " still 
growing." The offering for the year was forty-five 
dollars. Of the work she writes : — 

It is nine years since I began, and the Lord has wonder- 
fully blessed me and given me great success. I love the 
work. It seems dearer to me every year. I am as much 
interested in my members as any pastor could be in his 
people. 

The Home Department has taken root in England, 
one of the most successful being the one organized 
at Ipswich in connection with the Congregational Sun- 
day-school. 

An account of it was reported in a late Sunday-school 
convention and published with a map of the district, in 
The London Sunday-School Chronicle, On this map 
every house visited was marked with a cross. A large 
section of the city surrounding the church was divided 
into districts according to a carefully prepared plan. 
A number of Visitors were appointed and more than 
1,200 homes visited. Some six hundred Home Depart- 
ment members were obtained and organized into 



86 The Home Department 

Home Classes, and under the care of the Visitors 
stimulating prayer-meetings were held in the homes of 
these people, with remarkable spiritual results. There 
were many conversions and a large number were 
added to the main department of the Sunday-school. 
Some other large Home Departments — by no means 
all — are tabulated as follows : — 

Madison Avenue Presbyterian, New York City 1,200 

Baptist Temple, Brooklyn 700 

Green Avenue Baptist, Brooklyn 380 

Christian School, Mason City, la 375 

M. E. School at Opelika, Ala 300 

Calvary Baptist, New York 650 

Rochester, N. Y., Old Brick Presbyterian 250 

M. E. School, Memphis, Tenn 300 

First Presbyterian, Memphis, Tenn 300 

Second Congregational Church, Dorchester, Mass. . . . +300 

Mr. W. W. Hall, the superintendent of the Madison 
Avenue Presbyterian Sunday-school, is the inspiring 
force of its large Home Department. Some of the 
reasons for its success are as follows : — 

Its work is largely carried on by paid Visitors, the church 
believing that it cannot better spend its money than in this 
work. 

It has a monthly paper published regularly for its mem- 
bers. 

It has a Visitor Nurse, always ready to respond to a call 
from a needy member of the Department. 

The Department has a library of helpful books for the 
use of its members. These are of various types from books 
on hygiene and child-training to simple stories, and the list 
includes volumes in German and Bohemian as well as in 
English. 



The Purpose of the Home Department 87 

The Department's field of work extends from Fifth 
Avenue to the East River and includes every social grade 
from the very rich to the very poor. 

Its Visitors make 14,000 calls a year. 

Through the Home Department two hundred members 
have been added to the main school, and the report adds, 
" and twice as many more could be secured if we had suf- 
ficient room and teachers to accommodate them." 

The Department more than sustains its own expenses 
aside from the salaries of the Visitors. 

The foregoing are merely sample illustrations out of 
thousands of similar incidents. They are not selected, 
but are taken as they come to hand. Probably many 
v^ho read them can more than match them with others 
in their own experience. 



IV 

THE ORGANIZATION OF THE HOME 
DEPARTMENT! 

The definition of the purpose of the Home Depart- 
ment has been given. The definition of the Home 
Department itself is as follows : — 

The Home Department is that agency or department 
of the Sunday-school whose object is to promote the 
study of the Bible y in connection with the Sunday-school, 
among those who for any reason do not attend its 
sessions. 

That which has been said relative to the purpose of 
the Home Department renders it needless here to refer 
to anything more than its relations to the main school. 
Of that it is a department, as close in its connection as 
the Senior, the Intermediate, or the Primary Depart- 
ment. If it be the custom, as is the case in many of 
the larger schools, to constitute an Executive Committee 
of the heads of the different departments, then the 
superintendent of the Home Department should have a 

^ It should be understood that in what is here said about organization and 
subsequently about methods the author follows almost literally the divisions of 
the address delivered by Dr. Duncan in St. Louis before the World's Sunday- 
School Convention and the outline of the Normal Class Leaflet No. 4, prepared 
with great care by him. 

38 



The Organization of the Home Department 89 

place upon that Executive Committee. The officers of 
the Home Department should be regarded as officers of 
the school; its Visitors should rank along with the 
teachers, and its members should be counted in with the 
rest of the school — even when reporting to the denomi- 
national or interdenominational headquarters for the 
gathering of statistics. The study of the lesson by the 
members of the Home Department should be looked 
upon as the equivalent of personal attendance upon the 
school, and their contributions should go into the com- 
mon treasury. The students in the Home Classes should 
be welcomed into classes of like grade. They should 
be entitled to the use of the library and to participation 
in all the Sunday-school socials, picnics, entertainments, 
lectures, etc. The Home Department never should be 
referred to as an outside organization, having only a 
nominal connection with the church or school. 

Being a department of the Sunday-school it should 
make its quarterly and annual reports, and in turn be 
made acquainted with the facts concerning the school as 
a whole. The interest of the members of the Home 
Department will be greatly increased by the closeness of 
this fellowship. They will come to take a personal con- 
cern in the growth or decrease of the Sunday-school, and 
will in many instances be led to join the main school. 
Many schools either print a quarterly report, or reproduce 
it by one of the dupHcating processes, and send it to 
every member of the Home Department. Too much 
stress cannot be laid upon making the members of the 
Home Department feel that they are a part of the school, 
as essential as any other part. The more cordial and 
complete that recognition is, the better will the Home 



90 The Home Department 

Department be able to accomplish its mission. The 
main school should be like a magnet, drawing every 
member of the Home Department towards itself and 
holding them all to one center by means of its powerful 
influence. 

Again, being a department merely, it should be sub- 
ject to all the rules and regulations of the school which 
are applicable to it. Its officers and workers should be 
appointed according to the rules or custom of the school, 
and they should act under the direction and in co-opera- 
tion with its executive. They should consider that they 
are working in the interests of the school as a whole and 
not merely for their department alone. Hence their 
thought should.be, not to make the Home Department 
as large as possible, but to make it contribute to the 
growth and interest of the main school. Some primary 
departments, in order to keep a greater showing, unwisely 
retain pupils who should go into the intermediate de- 
partment. The Home Department may do its very best 
work by entirely obliterating itself, as was the case with 
one started in Manitoba, every one of its members 
having joined the main school. Whenever one of a 
Home Class transfers his connection to the school there 
is cause for rejoicing, for that fact is evidence that the 
Home Department has awakened in him such a love of 
Bible study that he wishes the additional aid of personal 
teaching and class discussion. The value of the Home 
Department is not to be gathered from its numbers, but 
by what it does for those connected with it and for the 
school. 

How shall the Home Department be organized ? It 
should have: — i. A superintendent, 3. A secretary 



The Organization of the Home Department 91 

and treasurer, when large enough to need one. 3. Visi- 
tors. 4. Home Classes. 5. Lesson Helps. 
Let us take up these in their order : — 

1. The Superintendent. — i. His appoint- 
ment. Reference already has been made to the fact 
that this officer should be chosen according to the rules 
or custom of the school. If installation is practised with 
regard to the heads of the other departments, or if any 
special rites are observed upon their appointment, or 
any public notice is taken of it, then a like recognition 
of the importance of the office should be accorded to 
his entering upon its responsibilities. Incidentally it 
may be said that some form of induction into office 
which fitly emphasizes the greatness of the obligation 
imposed by it would be advisable in the case of any 
Sunday-school functionary. Responsibilities easily and 
lightly assumed are quite likely to be carelessly dis- 
charged and easily dropped. 

2. His qualifications. We hardly need say that 
much depends upon the qualifications of the superin- 
tendent. Under the care of one the Home Department 
will fail, while with another at its head it will be a great 
success. Great pains, therefore, should be taken in the 
selection of the one to whom it is to be entrusted. The 
limitation of the English language is such that we have 
to speak as if the superintendent must be a man — but 
a woman may hold the office. In many instances it has 
been found better to place a woman in charge of the 
work. Get the best one for the place to be found without 
regard to sex. Whether the superintendent be one or 
the other, certain endowments are necessary in order to 
achieve success. They are : — 



g2 TTie Home Department 

(i) Consecration to the service of Christ, The 
superintendent should not be a reluctant but a zealous 
worker. He should feel that the Master has called him 
to work — to minister rather than to be ministered unto. 
He should be inspired with a love for souls and a great 
desire to see them gathered into the kingdom. He 
should be so enthusiastic that others will take fire from 
his flame. If the work be undertaken as an onerous 
duty, rather than as a great opportunity for service, the 
achievements will be comparatively small. An engine 
will move in proportion to the steam generating in the 
boiler. We work hard to accomplish those things in 
which our hearts are engaged, and as much as possible 
slight those in which we have but little interest. To 
secure faithful and thorough work in the Home Depart- 
ment, therefore, the superintendent should be one of 
those who reply to the Lord's call : '' Here am I ; send 
me." 

(2) Faith in the Home Department as an effective 
agency. The one who thoroughly believes in a thing 
will make it accomplish a great deal when others can 
achieve little or nothing with it. One's efforts will be in- 
creased according to his faith. A happy, cheerful con- 
fidence as to results will make things go. It will stimu- 
late all the under workers. It will commend the plan to 
whomsoever it may be suggested; for one of the first 
things necessary to make others believe in anything is to 
believe in it strongly oneself. It is said of Jesus' second 
visit to Nazareth : " And he did not many mighty works 
there because of their unbelief " (Matt. 13 : 58). If any- 
where the Home Department should fail to accomplish 
many mighty works, it would probably be for a like reason. 



The Organization of the Home Department 93 

How shall faith be obtained,? {a) By considering the 
purpose and the plan of the Home Department. Ob- 
serve how adapted it is to enlist people in the study 
of the Scriptures. (^) By ascertaining what it has ac- 
complished in other places. It is no longer an experi- 
ment, but has been proved to be a powerful agency for 
evangelization, {c) By personal experience. Go into the 
field determined to demonstrate its full efficiency, and faith 
will develop with each proof of its adaptation to its end. 

(3) Executive ability. That means simply the power 
to carry a plan into execution. The one who has it 
sees quickly how to adapt the means which he has to 
accomplish his object, or how to get the means in case 
he hasn't them. He is full of resources. If one 
method fails, he has another which is better. Many 
address themselves to their task without considering how 
best to do it ; he considers, thinks, compares, plans. In 
the phrase of the day, he ^' gets there." It is such a 
one who should be chosen to be the superintendent of 
the Home Department. 

(4) Tact, Tact means touch, and in the sense here 
used, it is the ability to touch people in the right way. 
Its meaning is illustrated by the prayer of the little girl 
who petitioned God " to help her rub kitty in the way 
that makes her purr and not the way that makes her 
scratch." Some people are always rubbing the fur in the 
wrong way. The disposition is aroused to say No to 
their request even before its nature is fully apprehended. 
Just the contrary is the case with regard to the approach of 
others. The desire to oblige them is such that an assent 
is given to every reasonable demand even before it is 
fully stated. One with tact will easily accomplish that 



94 The Home Department 

which others will not be able to do at all or do only with 
the hardest of effort. Do not put a tactless person in as 
superintendent of the Home Department. 

(5) Persistence, A great many things are abandoned 
just at that point where a little more effort would make 
them go. Nearly every undertaking has its period of 
difficulty at the beginning, which must be surmounted. 
Let it not be thought by any one that a successful Home 
Department can be organized and carried on from the 
very start without any discouragements. The Visitors 
may meet with refusal after refusal. It may seem at the 
outset impossible to establish even a single Home Class. 
There are those who have met with this experience, 
and yet by persevering have seen a splendid result crown 
their labors. Be pleased if even only a few are secured ; 
don't be satisfied, but be glad. In time, and by con- 
tinued effort, the few will become many. The superin- 
tendent who persists, who will not entertain for a 
moment the thought of defeat, will in the end find 
himself the head of a Home Department of which he 
will have no occasion to be ashamed. 

3. His duties. Before undertaking any work one 
should ascertain exactly what is required in order to 
accomplish it. A clear understanding of the duties 
involved in the position of superintendent of the Home 
Department will of itself be a preparation for the office. 
Those duties are : — 

(i) To map out and thoroughly know the field. The 
first thing to discover is the extent of the territory to be 
canvassed. Some of it may be thickly and some of it 
may be thinly settled. That fact must be taken into 
consideration in districting the field. Some of it will be 



The Organization of the Home Department 95 

found to be easy of access and some of it difficult ; some 
of it may be respectable and some of it may have a 
hostile population with some " toughs "in it ; some may 
be where the people of the church reside and some of 
it may be where there are few churchgoers, etc. All 
these things must be taken into account in estimating 
the number of Visitors required, and in assigning them to 
their several fields, for it must be evident that a Visitor 
who is perfectly adapted to one district may not be at all 
fitted to go into another. The leader of a band of 
Visitors must be thoroughly acquainted with each portion 
of ihe territory to.be covered by them. He is a poor 
general who does not look over the battlefield before- 
hand, if there is the least opportunity to do so. The 
superintendent should be able to tell each Visitor con- 
cerning her field, the best way of getting to it, the 
character of its inhabitants, the course to pursue in 
approaching the people, etc. 

(3) To select a corps of Visitors. Having mapped 
out his territory and divided it into districts, the super- 
intendent then, with an eye to its several fields, should 
look over the church-membership and select those whom 
he deems to be best adapted to the work. These should 
be nominated by him to the school or to the executive 
committee, or to the church, as may be the rule or the 
custom, and elected to their positions in the usual way. 
The better the material in the Visitors the surer will be 
their welcome. It is a mistake to send out the uninflu- 
ential and the uninfluencing. The work should not be 
felt by any one to be beneath her. When any one so 
feels, she is not worthy of it. Nominate the best women 
in the church, and leave it to them to say whether they 



96 The Home Department 

will not or cannot act. The higher the standing of the 
Visitors in the church and socially, the more likely will 
they succeed in getting members of the best families to 
join the Home Department; and if they join, that fact 
will be a powerful inducement for others to follow. 
Women are suggested for Visitors rather than men 
because they are likely to be able to command more 
time, are more zealous, have more tact, and are more 
welcome in the homes to be visited. 

(3) To instruct the Visitors and to assign to thew: their 
work. Even the most intelligent and quick-witted are 
helped by a little instruction. Mr. Moody found it 
advisable to have a school for Christian workers, that 
they might be fitted for just this kind of effort — that of 
approaching people in their homes. Having secured his 
corps of Visitors, the superintendent should meet with 
them and clearly outline their duties, explaining the pur- 
pose and the plan of the Home Department, indicating 
the methods to be followed and assigning each to her 
field. At this first meeting it is important that the 
Visitors be inspired with enthusiasm for their work, and 
that they be made to feel that it is not taken up to be 
followed only for a little while. Very much will depend 
upon the spirit and the purpose with which the Visitors 
enter upon their labors. Better that some fields should 
remain for a while unvisited than to send into them 
those who will merely make it harder for others to 
succeed. 

The superintendent should have a meeting with his 
Visitors at least once every quarter for comparing notes, 
learning methods from each other, the relation of expe- 
riences, and for prayer. Such meetings will be of great 



The Organization of the Home Department 97 

value to the Visitors, and they will go out from them 
strengthened and made wiser for their work. 

(4) To keep accurate records. In the Home Depart- 
ment, bookkeeping is as necessary as in a business house. 
Success in any enterprise comes from looking after 
details. The books should show every accession to the 
department and every loss; they should contain the 
names of all the Visitors and of the members of the 
Home Classes; they should indicate every transference 
from the Home Department to the main school, every 
removal of any member of a Home Class and to what 
locality, every result accomplished by his membership. 
In other words, the object of the bookkeeping is not to 
make a show of statistics merely, but to keep track of 
each Home Class member so that he shall not be lost. 
From the records thus kept the superintendent will make 
quarterly and annual reports to the main school, that 
every one in the school may take an interest in the 
Home Department and feel that it is part of the school. 
He will also make similar reports to each member of the 
Home Classes, that each one may see what are the facts 
relative to the Home Department, and so the tie to it be 
made the stronger. In that report he will add the sta- 
tistics of the main school that the force of connection 
with it may be felt. 

(5) To plan and direct social^ instructive and reli- 
gions gatherings for the members of the Home Department. 
An esprit de corps may be developed and stimulated by 
such meetings which will tend to make the department 
very popular, and in that way aid its further increase. At 
the first social the pastor might give an informal talk on 
Bible study, emphasizing its importance and expressing 



98 The Home Department 

his hearty sympathy with the new organization. For 
subsequent gatherings speakers should be secured to give 
an insight into the books being studied, and to give an 
idea of the times in which and the purpose for which 
they were written, or to speak upon some themes which 
have come up in class study. Neighborhood prayer- 
meetings can be instituted among the members of the 
Home Department, and occasionally a meeting be held 
to which all shall be invited to be addressed by the 
pastor or some effective speaker. 

II. Visitors. — As already indicated the Visitors 
usually should be ladies. In Home Department work 
they succeed better than men. By nature they are 
better fitted for it. Many church-members who feel that 
they have no gift for teaching in the Sunday-school will 
find that they can do this work well. Of course it is 
better to take those not already employed in some 
church service, that the working power of the church 
may be developed. In some cases the Y. P. S. C. E. has 
furnished a band of zealous young people for the pur- 
pose, but as a rule more will be accomplished by the 
mature and experienced. 

I. Their qualifications. Like the superintendent 
they need Christian zeal for their work. They should 
prosecute it with relish. They should be fully per- 
suaded in their own minds that it is right, necessary, 
and efficacious. They should have full confidence in 
the Home Department as an agency for accomplishing 
its purpose. They should be persons of high Christian 
character, so that they will be respected wherever they 
go. They should have courage and tactful persistence 
in their work. With these qualifications they will have 



The Organization of the Home Department 99 

no trouble in establishing a Home Department of great 
value. 

2. Their duties, (i) To organize Home Classes. 
This is to be done by a thorough canvassing of the 
neighborhood entrusted to each. Each family is to be 
visited, its religious statistics gathered, and so far as 
possible all of its members pledged to enter the Home 
Department, who cannot or v^ill not attend the sessions 
of the Sunday-school. The first effort should be directed 
towards inducing those to join the main school who are 
able to do so. The Visitor should consider that it is a 
greater gain to influence one to connect himself with the 
main school than with the Home Department, for then 
he is brought into touch with a teacher, is quickened by 
the thoughts suggested in the class, and feels the impulse 
of the school. Of course the Visitor will not neglect 
the opportunity which her visit affords to give a cordial 
invitation to attend the services of the church, though 
care must be taken not to proselyte from other churches. 
If any family prefers a church and Sunday-school of a 
different denomination, true Christian comity will suggest 
that the pastor and superintendent concerned shall be 
notified of the fact. It is sufficient to secure a simple 
oral promise that one will study the Sunday-school lesson 
at least a half hour each week. The written pledge has 
been almost abandoned, it having been found in practi- 
cal work unnecessary. If one says that he will study 
the lesson, and takes the Quarterly and the report collec- 
tion envelope, that is all the proof that is needed of his 
intention to study as desired. For the various forms 
which a Home Class may take, see Classes. 

(2) To visit the members of the Home Classes 

tore 



loo The Home Departfnent 

regularly. The enrolment of members should be 
followed by regular visitation to provide them at the end 
of the quarter with new lesson helps, report collection 
envelopes or report cards and collection envelopes, and 
to receive their offerings. These calls should be made 
immediately after the last Sunday of the quarter, so that 
there will be ample time to study the lesson for the next 
Sunday by those who may wish to take it up during the 
week. Other visits should be made as occasion may 
require, such as sickness, affliction, report of intended 
removal, etc. 

Much will depend upon the character of these visits. 
If they are merely perfunctory calls, they will result in 
but little ; but if they are permeated with a spirit of true 
and helpful friendliness, they may accomplish a great 
deal. Two errors should be avoided. The first is the 
assumption of the official missionary I-am-come-to-do- 
you-good air, and the other is the manifestation of 
insincere gush. Be neither formal nor too demonstrative. 
Be content to make headway slowly, but hold all that is 
gained. Bear in mind the fact that the enrolment is 
only the means to an end, and that that end is the con- 
version and discipleship of each member of the Home 
Class. But watch for fitting opportunities of conversation 
on personal rehgion; do not be too premature in 
approaching a topic concerning which people do not 
talk freely and sincerely except to those who have won 
their way into their hearts. Begin with such matters as 
relate to the study of the lessons, and then, as acquaint- 
ance justifies, speak of Christ. 

If there is an evident indisposition to join the Home 
Class, do not press the matter to an adverse decision, but 



The Organization of the Ho?ne Department loi 

suggest that the circulars be read and the scheme be 
thoroughly considered, promising to call again. There 
is hope of success if consent to think over the matter be 
secured. By the next visit there may be other names 
added to the Hst of those pledged which will have a 
strong influence in favor of an affirmative answer. 
Many will join if they see that others are joining, and 
will decline if they think they are to be alone in 
doing so. 

Particularly the Visitor should avoid controversy on 
religious topics. Do not be entrapped into an argument. 
Suffer unkind criticism, but do not indulge in any. Do 
not speak offensively of any pastor, church or denomi- 
nation. Make no efforts to proselyte from any other 
sect. Let the Visitor show that her sole purpose is to 
promote Bible study and to build up Christ's kingdom. 

The Visitor may suggest many things to her Home 
Class which will be stimulating to its members, and which 
will bind them together and give her a greater hold upon 
them. She can make mention of books in the library 
peculiarly worth reading, give information of approach- 
ing socials, picnics or entertainments, and relate such 
facts concerning the Sunday-school and the church as 
will tend to foster interest in them. She can arrange for 
class reunions, and at those reunions, or during the 
round of her visits, may induce the members to enter 
upon some course of reading together. That would be 
particularly helpful. The reading need not necessarily, 
be of a religious character, but it should have to do 
only with standard authors. After the course is com- 
pleted a free and informal meeting, for the purpose of 
discussing it, would suggest itself, and would prepare the 



I02 The Home Department 

way for another. The course in each instance should 
be short. Again the Visitor, after looking up the matter 
thoroughly, may recommend that the class devote its 
offerings to some worthy object, such as the establishing 
of some Sunday-school out upon the frontier, the 
support of some bed in a hospital, the contribution 
of a specified amount towards the salary of some mis- 
sionary, etc. When the proper time comes she may 
suggest class prayer-meetings, and point out such work 
for Christ as can be done by its members in their 
neighborhood, thus making of her class an active 
evangelizing agency. Thus studying together, reading 
together, meeting together, giving together, and pray- 
ing and working together, the members of a Home 
Class may be cemented in the closest ties of Chris- 
tian fellowship, and may become a power for good 
to others. 

Visitors also may be of great service in reporting to 
the superintendent and to the pastor cases of distressing 
poverty, affliction, need of a little aid in obtaining work, 
and of especial religious interest. They can let the 
pastor know of those families which have been neglect- 
ing the services of the church, and the reasons therefor ; 
they can inform him of homes where a visit from him 
would be helpful and welcome. Thus they can enable 
the minister to put in his spare time to the very best 
advantage, instead of having to waste a good deal of it 
in hunting up those whom he can benefit, or going 
around calling without any particular aim. By noting 
the circumstances of a family, the Visitor may be able to 
suggest work which can be done by the mother, or 
daughter, or son, and so confer an inestimable favor 



The Organization of the Home Department 103 

upon those who are willing to work, but do not know 
just how to make use of their capabilities. 

III. Classes. — The Home Department is made up 
of Home Classes. A Home Class may consist of only 
one person ; it should rarely have more than twenty to 
twenty-five members, though its number should depend 
upon the time which can be given to it by the Visitor. 
The average, probably, will not be more then ten to twelve. 
No Visitor should undertake the oversight of a class so 
large that she cannot fully take care of it. If classes 
grow beyond the ability of the Visitors to give them 
faithful visitation and oversight, new Visitors should be 
appointed and the overplus formed into new classes. 
The members of a Home Class may be of different 
ages and require different grades of Quarterlies. The 
Visitor must take those who are willing to enlist, no 
matter how dissimilar they may be. In a Home Class 
grading is not necessary, inasmuch as in the most of 
cases individual study is the rule. Home Classes may 
be divided into : — 

1. Individual Classes. In these the members 
study independently of each other. They may live in the 
same neighborhood or they may be widely scattered. By 
Individual Classes it is possible to unite in study those 
who are traveling with those who stay at home ; those who 
remove to distant places with the Sunday-school which is 
so beloved by them ; those who are obliged to be on duty 
with those who are gathered together in the school ; those 
who are sick or infirm with those who are well and strong. 
The Home Class will most often take this form. 

2. Family Classes. It will now and then happen 
that a family too far removed to attend either church or 



I04 The Home Department 

Sunday-school, or unable for other reasons to go, such as 
sickness, want of suitable clothing, etc., will be glad 
to pursue the study of the Sunday-school lesson together. 
In that case the father or mother will act as instructor, 
or both may unite without distinction in the service. Of 
course the grandparents will be included, if living and 
present. A Family Class is the most beautiful sight on 
earth when earnestly and devotionally engaged in the 
study of God's Word. There is hope for the household 
where all unite in the study of the Scriptures. Even 
when a Family Class is not formally organized the Visitor 
by tactful suggestion may induce the parents to help their 
children in the mastery of the lesson, thus practically 
establishing one. The children who go to the Sunday- 
school need this home help and oversight, and the Visitor 
may do much to secure them. 

3. Neighborhood Classes. In some localities it will 
be found that some will prefer to meet in the home of one 
of their number, for the purpose of studying and talking 
over the lesson together, under the leadership of one 
whom they may select. Such a class will be a Neighbor- 
hood Class. Thousands of such classes are in operation 
in country neighborhoods which are too remote from 
church and school to permit of having their privileges. 
They are the vital religious center of the little communi- 
ties where they exist, '^ holding the fort" for the reinforce- 
ments which they hope may come in due time, and stand- 
ing as a bulwark against a relapse into semi-heathenism. 
It is to be hoped that many Neighborhood Classes will 
be formed in isolated communities. They can be carried 
on independently or, what is better in most cases, joined 
to the nearest affiliated Sunday-school. 



The Organization of the Ho^ne Department 105 

4. Correspondence Classes. The name suggests 
their character. With the consent of the Home Depart- 
ment superintendent, any one desiring to do so may start 
such a class and be its conductor. Think of those who 
are far separated from all the benefits and good fellowship 
of church and Sunday-school, and write, asking them if 
they would not like to become members of a Corre- 
spondence Class. Extend the invitation as the circle 
enlarges through those who are added to it and as new 
names occur, and it will not be long before a large class 
will be enrolled, as large as one will care to have the 
charge of. Quarterlies, of course, should be sent to 
each member, with the report-collection envelope ; and 
at the end of each quarter the report-collection envel- 
opes should be gathered up and a fresh supply sent. 
Suggestions as to course reading, benevolent contribu- 
tions, etc., may be made through correspondence, as in 
the other classes they are made orally. 

Of course a Home Class may unite two or more of 
these forms. 

IV. Lesson Helps. — The lesson helps used in 
the school should be furnished to the members of the 
Home Classes generally upon the same terms as to the 
other scholars. Many will prefer to pay for them. 
Whether they shall be given or not should be left to the 
discretion of the Visitor. Of course the Visitor should 
be careful to give to each Home Class student the grade 
of lesson help most suited to him. Some will be enrolled 
who are far enough advanced to demand the helps 
usually placed in the hands of teachers. A lawyer or 
any professional man would not feel compHmented by 
having a juvenile help offered him. 



THE HOME DEPARTMENT AND THE PASTOR 

It should be understood that the pastor has that, 
official relation to the Home Department which he has, 
or should have, to every other activity of the church. 
The superintendent should consult freely with him and 
act under his advice and direction. The pastor will be 
profited by the Home Department almost, if not quite, 
as much as the Sunday-school; and therefore the im- 
portance of his being intimately associated with it and 
acquainted with all that it is doing. If pastors only 
realized what a help to them the Home Department 
might be, its general adoption would be phenomenally 
rapid. Let us note : — 

L How the Home Department can help the 
Pastor. — It can help him : — 

I. In church attendance. The special trouble in 
each church is to secure visitation and canvass of its 
field. Once in a while, when the matter is urgently 
presented, the members of the church are rallied to 
make the effort. They go from house to house, invite 
the newcomers to the church and Sunday-school, succeed 
in getting some who have been neglecting the services 
of the church, perhaps discover some cases of need, 
and think that they have done so great a thing that they 
can rest for a good long while. Such spasmodic going 
over the territory accomplishes but little. It does not 

io6 



The Home Department and the Pastor 107 

do very much good either to the church or to the com- 
munity. A regular, persistent and thorough canvass is 
what is required. The Home Department furnishes a 
corps of Visitors, who are pledged to visit every part of 
the parish at least four times a year, and who may go 
oftener. This is the very thing which should be done 
by the church and for the lack of which so many 
churches are languishing. There are empty pews, and 
no effort is made to fill them except by the pastor in his 
preaching. There is no going out in the highways and 
hedges to compel the people to come in. Each church 
should evangelize the neighborhood in which it is located, 
and that cannot be done simply by opening the church 
on Sunday. The gospel invitation must be carried to 
the people in their homes. This is done by the Visitors 
of the Home Department. It is one of their duties to 
urge every one to attend church as well as to join the 
Sunday-school or the Home Department. Going over 
the field every quarter, they will be sure to discover the 
newcomers, and will make them feel that they are 
welcome both in the church and Sunday-school. By 
their frequent calls they will be able to overcome the 
reluctance of many to attend, and will make all feel that 
the church is indeed in earnest in looking after them. 
And that is the impression which every church should 
make. 

2. In visiting. In every large parish it is a serious 
problem with every pastor how to make his pastoral work 
tell to the best advantage. Perfunctory calling is now 
almost entirely given up, as not being worth the time 
and pains required. In some cases it is absolutely 
impossible for the minister to visit each family at stated 



io8 The Home Department 

intervals. And yet the pastor who is not personally 
acquainted with his people, and who does not call upon 
them at all, has but little hold upon them. As a rule, 
the ministers in large parishes have it understood that 
they will visit where there is particular need of their 
services. How shall that need be discovered ? In those 
churches where a missionary is employed the pastor 
learns from him where he should go ; but in the majority 
of churches there is no missionary. The corps of Home 
Department Visitors can fulfill all his duties, and that 
without cost to the church. They can report to the 
pastor : — 

( 1 ) Those who have letters from other churches. It 
too often happens that in coming into a new locahty 
members of other churches do not immediately report 
the fact that they hold letters of dismission and recom- 
mendation. Frequently they are held so long that there 
is a reluctance to present them. This would not happen 
at all if there were a corps of Visitors regularly canvass- 
ing the territory and inquiring into the church relation- 
ship of each new arrival. 

(2) Those who are interested in their own salvation. 
If the Visitors are faithful in their work, such cases will 
frequently occur. They may find that they need the 
help of the pastor to secure the needed decision, or that 
he can remove doubts or make things clear where they 
are unable to do so. To a pastor it is great comfort and 
inspiration to be told of such cases. Under such cir- 
cumstances calling is worth while. 

(3) Those who are in trying circumstances. The 
Visitors will inform the pastor of any cases of sickness, 
of affliction, of distress from poverty, or from any other 



The Home Department and the Pastor 109 

cause. Before he goes to any house he will so under- 
stand the circumstances that he will be prepared to say 
the right word and do the right thing. He will learn 
from the Visitors of persons needing work, young or old, 
and can aid them in securing it. 

(4 ) Those who can be developed. The Visitors should 
always remember that they can be of great service to 
the church and the pastor by noting what special capa- 
bilities there may be in some of the members of their 
Home Classes. There may be some who would make 
admirable teachers, and that fact should be reported to 
the Sunday-school superintendent and to the pastor. 
They may find some musicians who could be enrolled in 
an orchestra for the Sunday-school or help in the church 
choir. They may discover some who would be zealous 
workers in the Christian Endeavor Society. They will 
tell the pastor of young persons who are desirous of 
obtaining a college education or of young men who are 
beginning to have thoughts of the ministry, and he can 
strengthen all such aspirations and help them to reaUze 
them. 

In these and other ways it is evident that the Home 
Department can do a great deal for the church and the 
pastor. It is a veritable Pastor^s Aid Society. We now 
look at the other side : — 

II. How the Pastor can help the Home 
Department. — If it is to be a great aid to him, he 
must be a great aid to it. Its success will largely depend 
upon his attitude towards it. What can he do for it? 

I. He can introduce it. He should not wait for 
the superintendent of the Sunday-school to move in the 
matter, but should urge its adoption himself. He can 



no The Home Department 

enlist the pastors of the other churches in the work, so 
that the canvass will be in the interest of all, and thus 
good understanding and fellowship be promoted. By 
so doing he will be the means of establishing several 
Home Departments instead of one. At all events he 
can be persistent enough to organize a Home Depart- 
ment in connection with his own Sunday-school. Hav- 
ing succeeded in instituting it, — 

2. He can commend it. He can recognize it as a 
worthy department of church work. He can notice it 
from the pulpit, commending it to all. He can preach 
upon the value of Bible study, emphasizing the opportu- 
nity which the Home Department gives to carry on such 
study at home in connection with the Sunday-school and 
by the aid of the excellent helps which are furnished. 
He can speak of it in his pastoral visits, especially 
recommending it to business men, to the aged, the 
infirm, the invalids, the mothers, servants, nurses, etc. 

3. He can recognize it. He can recognize it by 
making mention of it in pubHc prayer, just as he does 
any other activity of the church. He can preach special 
sermons to which the members of the Home Depart- 
ment shall be invited. He can send pastoral letters to 
the members of the Home Department on New Year's 
day and the like. 

4. He can cheer its workers. He can let the 
Visitors see that he values their work. He can tell them 
of the good results that come to his notice, of the good 
words which he hears, of the encouragement which it has 
been to invalids and others, of the value it is to him in 
his labors, of the reclamation of backsliders, etc. 

5. He can identify himself with it. He can 



The Home Department and the Pastor m 

meet with the superintendent and Visitors of the Home 
Department in their quarterly meetings that he may- 
there learn all that they are doing and make further 
suggestions to enlarge their work and make it more 
fruitful. In this conference he will hear many things 
which will be simply invaluable to him, and will be able to 
push the work forward to greater usefulness. Not to make 
use of this effective agency is simply a great blunder. 

It has been said that all the foregoing can be done ; 
they have been done. We are not presenting theories, 
but facts. Many churches as well as Sunday-schools 
have felt the stimulus of the Home Department. Many 
a pastor has discovered that it is an auxiliary which has 
greatly reinforced him and which he now regards as 
indispensable. Let us quote from two or three pastors. 

Rev. C. E. Mogg, d.d., of Ithaca, N. Y., says : — "The 
Department is a means of social and reHgious visitation. 
It is an age of personal work. In large churches it is 
difficult, if not impossible, for the pastor to come into 
intimate touch with all the members. Additional help 
is needed. The Home Department will create a large 
number of assistant pastors." 

Rev. R. E. Burton, of Syracuse, N. Y., says : — '* We 
believe in it first, last, and all the time. Were I now to 
make a re-statement of the work and its advantages, it 
would probably be with increased emphasis as to its 
value. I do not think there is a single department of 
church work in which results are more easily, quickly, 
and largely realized. If pastors only knew the advan- 
tages of such a department, they would at once introduce 
it into their churches." 



112 The Home Department 

In connection with the " Old Brick Church," Roches- 
ter, N. Y., Rev. G. B. F. Hallock has organized a Home 
Department which numbers over two hundred. Every 
effort has been made to develop the Home Department 
and make it efficient. Its members have been made to 
feel the closeness of the tie which binds them to the 
Sunday-school and the church. After thorough trial this 
is the testimony which Mr. Hallock bears concerning 
the Home Department : — 

" We see good results on all sides from the work. For 
one thing we are sure that the Bible is being studied by 
many who would otherwise have neglected it, and that it 
is studied more than it would have been by many who 
would have studied some. There is inspiration to study 
in the fact that the lesson for each week is being studied 
by twenty-five miUions of others. 

" Our Sunday-school is also increased in number by 
the total of the Home Department membership. We 
count every Home Department member as an actual 
member of the school. Each Visitor's rank is the same 
as that of a teacher in the main school. 

^^The Home Department has kindled new interest in 
the Sunday-school. Persons who begin to take the 
lessons get interested in them, and, being invited to the 
main school on special occasions, come, and the result 
has been that not a few have drifted out of the Home 
Department into the main school. There is a constant 
drift in that direction — towards the school, not from it, 
as some feared at first would be the case. I believe that 
for the sake of the Sunday-school itself it will pay any 
church to start a Home Department. 

^' Then, too, it has been a great promoter of sociability 



The Ho7ne Department and the Pastor 113 

in the church. It is no small gain to have a band of 
Visitors start out every three months and make a round 
of calls. The Visitors gain acquaintance and influence, 
and the people they call on are more attached to the 
church, and led into closer fellowship with Christ and his 
people. 

"We have found the Department in our church a 
veritable Pastor's Aid Society. The Visitors bring us 
a great deal of valuable information about the families 
where they go, tell us of cases of sickness, of persons in 
trouble or affliction, or of those seeking Christ. 

" Another feature is the co-operation secured betweeij 
the parents and the Sunday-school teachers. Parents 
through the Home Department become interested in the 
Sunday-school lessons, and studying them themselves 
also teach them to their children, and are interested in 
them and their studies, while before they paid no atten- 
tion, but turned the children over entirely to the Sunday- 
school teacher. 

"The Home Department method we find practical 
alike for promoting Bible study among all kinds of 
people ; the rich and the poor, and all classes. It is an 
individual matter between each Visitor and the person 
who joins a class. By having a care to the choice of 
Visitors we have found all classes of our people and 
many outside of the church, ready to take up the regu- 
lar, systematic work of studying the International 
Lessons. 

"The day is gone by when the Home Department 
must be apologized for, or prejudice against it be dis- 
armed. By its fruits it is known. So good have been 
its fruits that only good is known of it. So many and 



114 ^^^ Home Department 

multiplied are the good fruits that it is now widely 
known. I am happy to add the endorsement of a suc- 
cessful experience with it of over four years, and am 
sincere in saying that I think the time not distant when 
no Sunday-school will be considered fully equipped for 
its work unless it has also a Home Department con- 
nected with it." 

Rev. E. N. Packard, d.d., of Stratford, Conn., also 
writes as follows : — " There is no limit to the amount of 
good which can be done by the Home Department. I 
have several shut-ins who greatly enjoy their share in the 
work of general Bible study. The Visitor keeps them 
in touch with the whole work of the church, and they 
delight to hand in their contributions and reports. The 
aged and those at a distance can, in this way, keep in 
touch with the life of the school. Another class is helped 
in this way — the servants in families. Their services 
are required at home at the hour when most schools meet, 
and in the Home Class they keep up their interest. 
The commercial travelers also come in for the benefit, 
as they can study the lessons and report by mail. 
We have had members of our church send in reports 
while journeying. 

^' The presentation of this work offers a good door to 
general missionary work throughout the community. It 
gives a good errand to the Visitor. It certainly brings 
into the main school some of those who begin outside. 
We have seen that here. 

" Possibly the best evidence of my own faith in the 
work is in the fact that I am going to undertake a 
thorough canvass of my congregation, with aid from 
others, and offer this work to every family and individual 



The Home Department and the Pastor 115 

not aow in the school. I expect to increase our numbers 
largely by this means." 

Rev. Willard B. Thorp, pastor of the First Congrega- 
tional Church, Bingham ton, N . Y., bears this witness : — 
"I regard it as one of the most valuable parts of the 
church work. I get more new names of people who 
ought to be shepherded by our church, from the ladies 
in charge of the Home Department, than from any other 
source. This in a city church is invaluable. It secures 
incidentally also a large amount of Christian invitations 
to the homes of the people, on the pretext of carrying 
to them the Quarterly." 



VI 

METHODS OF THE HOME DEPARTMENT 

I. International and National. — The Inter* 
national Home Department Association was tentatively 
organized at Chautauqua in the summer of 1892. Two 
years afterward at the same place it was formally 
adopted as a part of the International Sunday-School 
Association by vote of its Executive Committee, and the 
tentative organization was made permanent. The object 
of the International Home Department Association is to 
promote the formation of Home Departments all over the 
world. The roster of officers will be found upon an 
earlier page. It prepares and publishes leaflets, pam- 
phlets, normal class lessons on the Home Department, 
addresses and circulars concerning the work. It may 
appoint State and District Secretaries who shall see that 
the work is presented in all the denominational and 
interdenominational conventions and conferences within 
their limits, that it is prosecuted throughout their field, 
and shall furnish information to all inquirers. This book 
is published at the instance of that organization. For 
normal class leaflets and information the president should 
be addressed at Room 803 Congregational House, 
Boston. He will especially welcome any interesting 
experiences and the relation of successful new methods. 

Through the sympathy and co-operation of the Inter- 
national Sunday-School Executive Committee, the Home 

116 



Methods of the Home Department 117 

Department is being discussed and thoroughly made 
known at the various state and district interdenomi- 
national Sunday-school gatherings. It appears as a topic 
upon almost every program. Thus it is receiving wide 
advertisement and powerful endorsement throughout this 
country and Canada. Abroad it is being pushed as 
vigorously as circumstances will permit; in some cases 
quite rapidly through such organizations as the Sunday- 
School Union of London. 

II. State. — Wherever State Sunday-school organi- 
zations have energetically taken up the work of propa- 
gating the Home Department, its growth has been 
greatly stimulated, to the advantage both of the Sunday- 
schools and of the State Associations. If the State 
Secretary believes in it and has time to attend to it, the 
Home Department can safely be entrusted to him ; if he 
is skeptical or is too much occupied, then a special 
secretary had better be chosen. In New York State^ 
where the Home Department has been most widely 
adopted, the State Association has been greatly aided by 
the Woman's Aid Board, which has an efficient General 
Secretary and several District Secretaries. Under the 
working of that organization it is estimated that about ten 
thousand members are added to the Home Department 
each year. The following, as sketched by Dr. Duncan, 
is the method of procedure in introducing it : — 

" In one of our districts a Woman's Board Secretary 
has been employed during the whole year. Her plan is 
to spend about a month in each county, giving from one 
to three days to each town and village according to size 
and needs. As far as possible plans are made and 
notices given of her coming at least one or two weeks 



ii8 The Home Department 

in advance and notice made of a union service or 
conference of workers of all denominations. She usually 
finds some one waiting for her, ready to extend hospi- 
talities. She prefers to visit with the workers rather 
than live in a hotel. Her first efforts are to secure an 
active woman to act as secretary of the Woman's Work 
in the town, who becomes responsible for the further 
extent of the work and receives the yearly reports. 
The second day she holds a conference in the afternoon 
or evening, and gives notice in all the churches that all 
who are interested in the Sunday-school work are invited 
to be present and take part in the discussions. She 
finds it wise to first call upon the pastor and superin- 
tendent of the different churches and Sunday-schools; 
confer with them about the work, enlist their sympathies, 
and obtain suggestions from them as to the best workers 
to call upon, spending the remainder of the time in 
talking with them personally about the opportunities 
offered by this plan. Nearly always she is accompanied 
by some of the lady workers, who aid her in finding the 
people. In aiding her they are helping to interest 
themselves in Home Class work and fitting themselves 
for real field work. In this way the District Secretary 
learns the local needs of all the churches. 

" At the conference in an informal address of fifteen 
minutes she presents the needs of the Home Class work, 
its extent, and gives some illustrations and results, drawn 
from her own personal experience, as well as the expe- 
rience of others, explaining to the people the opportunity 
of service offered, and the small requirements, and indi- 
cating that all who will, can have some part in it. They 
are invited to ask questions on any point on which they 



Methods of the Home Department 119 

desire information and a free parliament is held in which 
several speak, thus bringing the matter more fully before 
them and developing different points. 

^^The workers in each village are recommended to 
make a systematic visitation of the entire place ; the 
workers from different denominations going two by two, 
thus plainly showing that it is a union work. In this 
canvass the desired statistics are obtained, and all who 
cannot or will not attend any Sunday-school are invited 
to join the Home Department of the denomination of 
their choice. All denominational preferences are placed 
in one list and the names reported to the workers, who 
are expected to get these people either into the Sunday- 
school or some Home Class. 

"The Sunday-schools should each have a superin- 
tendent of the Home Department who will give the 
necessary time and attention to the work. This super- 
intendent should enhst as many others as the extent of 
the work demands, giving to each one a small permanent 
district, of from twenty to twenty-five families, whom 
they are to visit at least quarterly and deliver lesson 
helps, collect reports, offerings, etc. Where the different 
Sunday-schools are well represented at the first meeting, 
they should at once, if possible, choose their superin- 
tendents and commence the work. 

" The Woman's Board Secretary carries with her Home 
Class addresses, leaflets, membership reports, cards and 
canvass books, for the use of pastors, superintendents, 
and those who desire them, that they may have an 
intelligent idea of the plan, before coming together in 
a conference.'* 

in. County, — During the sessions of the County 



I20 The Home Department 

Sunday-School Convention a Home Department Secre* 
tary should be appointed, with reference to introducing 
this agency into every Sunday-school within its territory. 
Such a person should be selected to carry it out as will 
be of himself a guaranty of success. Some one who has 
had experience with the Home Department, or who has 
strong faith in it, must consider it to be his mission to 
inaugurate this county work. 

IV. The Town. — I. The Secretary. If there 
is a township Sunday-school organization, it will be 
sufficient to appoint a Home Department Secretary, who 
shall act under the direction of the Executive Committee. 
The County Sunday-School Association should address 
itself to securing such a secretary in each township, thus 
providing for a canvass in every portion of its field. 
If there is no township Sunday-school organization, 
then one should be formed, or the churches can all be 
invited to join in a Home Department canvass, under 
the direction of a secretary, to be chosen by them at their 
first union meeting. The essential thing is the selection 
of a pushing, enthusiastic, and persistent secretary. The 
success of the canvass will largely depend upon that 
officer. We go once more to New York and to the 
Woman's Aid Board for a clear presentation of the duties 
of such a secretary, who, of course, as sketched by that 
organization, is a woman, but who may be a man ! Her 
or his duties are stated to be : — 

First, — To bring the methods and benefits of Home 
Department work before the various Sunday-schools of the 
township, and, if possible, secure the adoption of the plan 
and the election of a superintendent of the work in each. 

Second. — With the executive committee of the Town 



Methods of the Home Department 121 

Sunday- School Association to arrange for a yearly canvass of 
the entire township, appointing and instructing Visitors 
from the various Sunday-schools, assigning them to definite 
districts, and providing them with the Visitor's outfits 
prepared by the State Association, that they may visit every 
family, preserving certain statistics as indicated in the can- 
vass book, inviting all non-attendants to attend the Sunday- 
school of their choice, and all who decline this invitation to 
join the Home Department of that school. 

Third, — When the canvass is completed to receive the 
canvass books containing the Visitors' records and the 
membership cards with the names of those who are willing 
to become members of the Home Department affixed; to 
tabulate these records and give to each pastor a list of all 
families who express a preference for his church, to each 
superintendent a list of new scholars promised to attend his 
school, and to the superintendent of the Home Department 
of each school a list of persons who are willing to join 
its Home Department. 

Fourth, — To conduct at the end of each quarter a con- 
ference which should be attended by all who take part in 
the canvass or in Home Department work in the Sunday- 
schools of the town, the object of this meeting being to 
receive reports from the Visitors and Superintendents of 
departments, to see that all persons who are induced to join 
the Home Department are properly visited and cared for by 
the school for which they signify choice, and by mutual 
counsel and discussion to aid in the improvement and 
development of the work. 

Fifth, — To report plans made and results accomplished 
at each regular convention of the Town Sunday-School 
Association, and annually or more frequently, when re- 
quested, to the secretary of Woman's Work of the County 
Sunday-School Association. 

2. The canvass. When the town canvass is made, 



122 The Home Department 

whether by the Town Association or by a single church 
or school, a systematic visitation of the whole field is 
recommended. This canvass, under the Town Associa- 
tion, should be made by Visitors appointed by the 
churches of the different denominations in the town at 
a meeting called for that purpose. The pastor and 
superintendent of each church should come prepared to 
present the names of Visitors from their school. These 
Visitors should go two by two, calling upon every family, 
obtaining the desired statistics, and inviting all non- 
attendants to come to the church and Sunday-school of 
their choice, and, in case any cannot or will not do the 
latter, then to join the Home Department connected 
with that school. When the visitation is completed, the 
denominational preference of each family should be 
reported to the church of its choice, and to each super- 
intendent should be given a list of new members prom- 
ised for his Sunday-school or pledged to join his Home 
Department. This should be done even when a single 
school only is engaged in the canvass. From the results 
each school must organize its own Home Department. 

V. The Sunday-school. — Even if a Sunday- 
school begins with others in the canvass of its parish, it 
must in the end take care of its own field. The united 
work may be continued for its value in conference and 
for fellowship, but each school must rely upon itself for 
the care of those belonging to it. The following hints 
may be found serviceable : — 

I. The canvass. The advisability of having a map 
has already been suggested. Almost every county has a 
published township map which can be copied by tracing. 
If none can be obtained, then make one as nearly 



Methods of the Home Department 123 

accurate as possible, correcting its mistakes from time 
to time until a perfect working map has been obtained. 
Then a working sketch of her district should be given 
to each visitor that she may clearly understand the 
bounds of her territory, and thus omit visiting no portion 
of it, or, by mistake, going over into the territory of 
another. 

In one case recently reported — that of a large mission 
school — each teacher was pledged to visit the families 
represented in his class, carrying with him the Home 
Department requisites and lesson Quarterlies. The dis- 
trict covered by the school was gone over quite easily in 
this way in a few weeks after starting, and quite a large 
Home Department was organized. The visiting was 
good for the teachers, inasmuch as it brought them into 
the homes of their scholars and made them acquainted 
with their parents and their surroundings. As a tempo- 
rary expedient this was not a bad one, but it is plain that 
the canvass omitted calling at every house, and thus there 
was no concerted effort toward the evangelization of the 
whole parish. Again, the Home Class members need 
more especial attention than can be given to them by 
teachers whose energies and thoughts are already taken 
up by classes of their own. Teachers should have too 
much to do to assume the duties of Visitors, and Visitors 
certainly will be too much employed to be able to do 
more than to care for their Home Classes. 

2. The records. Each Visitor should have a Home 
Class book in which she should make record of each 
fact connected with her class and her visitation which is 
of sufficient importance to note. She should not rely 
upon her memory, but put down each item which should 



124 The Home Department 

be called to the attention of the pastor, or of the super- 
intendent, or of the Home Department superintendent, 
or of any teacher in the Sunday-school, as well as those 
matters which concern Home Class study and offerings. 
In time her book should present a history of what has 
been done by her in her little parish. 

3. The library. A great deal of use can be made of 
the library. It can be made the effective means for 
circulating good reading in some families where only 
trashy literature is known. By a little care and attention 
the Visitors can make the library very valuable to the 
Home Class members. They can keep track of the 
latest and the most interesting books ; can study the cir- 
cumstances of each member, and so be able to recom- 
mend something peculiarly appropriate. The shut-ins 
especially will appreciate good books. The Visitors, 
therefore, should carry the library list, and suggest 
especially choice or appropriate books, and see that the 
members get them, and that they are returned when 
read. In some Home Departments a " Messenger 
Service '* has been formed from the school or the Young 
People's Society of Christian Endeavor, of boys who take 
pleasure in delivering and returning the books. They 
are properly commissioned by a certificate and wear a 
neat little badge. The Sunday-school library, through 
the Home Department, may go outside upon a mission 
of comfort, instruction and evangelization. 

One church in Connecticut has made an appropriation 
of fifty dollars to furnish good religious papers for cir- 
culation among the members of the Home Department, 
and the Visitors say that much good is being accom- 
phshed by them. In another case a large box with a slit 



Methods of the Home Department 125 

in the top has been placed in the vestibule, in which the 
members of the church and congregation as they go into 
church are invited to place their rehgious papers which 
they have read and are willing to pass on. These are 
taken out by the Home Department Visitors and dis- 
tributed in those families where good reading is not 
otherwise provided. This is an economical and efficient 
way of multiplying the influence of those papers. Good 
reading will inevitably correct the taste for that which is 
pernicious. 

4. Classes. Many schools have a special class in the 
main school to which the visiting Home Class students 
are invited. It is understood that this is their class, in 
order that they may feel the more at home in it. Other 
superintendents prefer to distribute them in different 
classes, corresponding to their age and attainments. In 
the Methodist Episcopal Sunday-school of Bethel, Conn., 
the superintendent of the Home Department, who is a 
lady, teaches a class made up of her Visitors. The Vis- 
itors find it very profitable to study the lesson with the 
needs of the Home Department in mind, and this weekly 
coming together affords them an opportunity to talk 
over their work and get new wisdom and inspiration 
for it. 

5. Socials. To stimulate the class spirit and to win 
the members more effectually Home Class socials are 
held by some Visitors either at their own homes or at 
the homes of some of their members. At these, besides 
such pleasant recreations as will suggest themselves, 
quarterly or monthly reviews or conversations about the 
lessons are a feature. Class picnics and little trips to 
memorable or delightful places are also planned. 



126 The Home Department 

Then there may be Home Department socials, in 
which all the Home Classes shall join, and at which 
there shall be competitive examinations, addresses by 
the pastor and others, songs, recitations and refresh- 
ments. 

6. Recognition days. In some churches once each 
quarter there is a Home Department Recognition Day, 
when all the members of that department are especially 
invited to be present at a service held in the church, and 
where the principal seats in the body of the house are 
assigned to the Home Class members. Other pastors 
content themselves with having only one or two such 
days during the year, preaching at the time sermons 
appropriate to the occasion. 

7. Membership roll. With all that is being done in 
the Home Department, some superintendents print 
quarterly and annually a list of the names of those 
belonging to the Home Department with their addresses 
and send it not only to each member of the department, 
but also to each member of the church and congrega- 
tion. It prepares the way for its further introduction. 

8. Sunshine Bands. Mrs. Flora B. Stebbins, 
Home Department Secretary of Massachusetts, has 
organized a corps of workers which she calls " The 
Home Department Sunshine Band." It is composed 
of girls from 8 to 1 7 years of age, who carry sunshine 
to invalids, the blind, to members in hospitals and 
asylums, to overburdened mothers, etc. There cer- 
tainly seems to be a great future for this new feature 
of the Home Department. 

This section may well close with an account of the 
Home Department as it is carried on in Northfield, in 



Methods of the Home Department 127 

Mr. Moody's home church. It will be seen that it 
speaks of some methods and combinations which have 
not been referred to, and which will be likely to suggest 
others. The fact is that it is not necessary to follow out 
all the methods which have been presented, and it may 
be wise in some cases to substitute new ones. The 
thing to do in each case is to make the best use of the 
means at hand. 

The Home Department work of the Northfield Sunday- 
school is organized in ten classes under the care of 
a superintendent, who has as associates nine class Visi- 
tors. It numbers about 170. It extends over a region 
eight miles long by six broad. It assists and is assisted 
by some auxiliaries which in any similar field might 
probably be usefully employed and even enlarged. 

The members are not only encouraged to draw books 
from the library of the home school, but in the remoter 
classes a small special library is put in circulation. 
These libraries are so made up that after a time they 
can be interchanged. Each is in charge of a librarian 
belonging in the district in which the library circulates. 
The books are brought to the notice of the people, and, 
passing from family to family, are sure to be read by 
many persons who would not be attracted to books by 
the list of a catalogue, and who would not think of 
reading them unless brought under their eyes. 

Associated with the young peoples' societies somewhat, 
but more particularly with the Ladies' Missionary So- 
ciety, are several missionary reading circles, which are 
also in some respects auxiliary to the Home Department. 
Several of these include mostly members of the Home 
Classes. The missionary libraries are mainly distinct 



128 The Home Department 

from the libraries above mentioned, which are not 
limited to missionary books, although including some of 
that character. Each reading circle has a leader who 
keeps an eye on the circulation of the books. The 
circles vary in numbers from half a dozen to twenty-five, 
and each has a library corresponding to its membership, 
so that every member, or nearly so, can have a book at 
the same time. Books can be retained from two weeks 
to a month, according to the size. When the book is 
read it is passed to the next name on the list, the names 
of all the readers being pasted on the cover or written in 
the book. The last reader on the Hst passes it to the 
leader of the circle. When all the books in a circle 
have passed all the readers, they can be exchanged with 
those belonging to some other circle. The circles enroll 
about eighty persons, and the bond of membership is 
the agreement on the part of each to read at least four 
of the books in a year. But it is found that usually each 
member reads all the books which come to hand. 

The Ladies' Missionary Society, when it has a meeting 
of some special interest or on occasion of its anniversary, 
has found the Home Department a field open to its 
influence. Every lady member of the Home Depart- 
ment has been invited to the anniversary, and many have 
responded and have been brought thereby into closer 
touch with the whole work of the church. The mission- 
ary reading circles have done much to prepare these 
scattered families to respond to such an invitation from 
the Missionary Society. 

When the last quarter came around the pastor brought 
the superintendent of the Home Department, the presi- 
dent of the Ladies' Missionary Society, and the secretary 



Methods of the Home Department 129 

of the reading circles into conference. The secretary of 
the reading circles took from the superintendent of the 
Home Department a list of all the names on the roll, 
regarding them as a field which the circles should cheer- 
fully cultivate, and planning to make the definite effort to 
have every family enlisted in the Home Department 
enrolled also among the missionary readers. The leader 
of each work agreed to try to enlarge her lists outside 
the present members, and to notify each the other of 
any accessions, so that they might be sought by the other 
organization also. And each agreed to communicate 
all names to the president of the Missionary Society, so 
that they might be remembered when any invitation 
should be extended from that society. 

A further auxiliary to the work of the Department is 
found in a circle of King's Daughters and a chapter of the 
Brotherhood of Andrew and Philip. These two groups 
each engage to do respectively for young men and young 
women some definite Christian service every week. A 
part of their endeavor is to enlist members in the Home 
Department. The leaders of these two groups of young 
people are expected to have in hand a list of all the young 
men and young women in town who should be sought 
out by them, and to see that each member of the circle 
has some work allotted, if they do not find it themselves. 
In some instances a member will be asked to get some 
into the Home Department and to have an interest in 
them when they may have become enrolled. 

One forenoon the pastor visited a district with the 
leader of the circle of King's Daughters and introduced 
her to a number of young women for whom the circle 
might have a care. A list of eighteen persons was brought 



130 The Home Department 

back, to whom he leader had been introduced and for 
whom she could plan work according to their circum- 
stances. Some of them might be added to the circle. 
Several could be enrolled in the Home Department. The 
same work will be done in other districts of the town. 

It is to be hoped that by all these interlacing and 
mutually supplementary agencies all souls within the 
scope and responsibility of the church may be cared for 
and won to Christ, 

Methods Illustrated. — Experience is the best of 
teachers, and those who have had experience are the 
best qualified to give instruction to novitiates. There- 
fore, just here, we will let some of those who have suc- 
ceeded in establishing Home Departments tell how 
they did the work and how it should be done. 

I. Securing workers. — Than Mr. W. W. Hall, 
Superintendent of the Madison Avenue Presbyterian 
Sunday-school, none is better qualified to tell how 
tvorkers can be obtained, for he has enlisted a large 
laumber to act as Visitors. He says : — 

God has given each one of us a personality. We begin 
life with that and whatever influence heredity may have 
upon it, nevertheless it becomes whatever we choose to 
make it. We may make it attractive or repellent ; unselfish 
or selfish, but whatever it is we will find it reflected back in 
the attitude of others toward us. A kindly man will meet 
kindness, a cross man will meet frowns. The man whose 
hand is against the world will find the world against him. 
The man ever ready to serve others will never lack recipro- 
cal favors. One of the strongest elements, therefore, in 
securing Visitors is personality, a personality made sweet 
and beautiful by the indwelling of the Spirit of the Master. 
It is the personal touch that exerts the greatest persua 



Methods of the Home Department 131 

sive force as well with the superintendent as with the 
Visitor. 

" I don't know whether I can do this work or not," says a 
new Visitor, *'but the superintendent thinks I can and as I 
would like to please him, I am going to try it." 

This is not the highest motive, surely ; but is it not a fact 
that a motive of this nature is often the initial spur to active 
service, lifting new workers over the fence of a natural 
timidity t A personal invitation, made lovingly persuasive, 
rarely meets with failure. 

Some one has said that every church is made up of willing 
people — a few who are willing to do all the work and the rest 
who are willing they should. The same spirit of kindly 
personality, therefore, will avoid seeking service from those 
whose hands are overfull. One of the blessed things con- 
nected with the Home Department is that a place for grate- 
ful service is provided for those whose household or other 
duties leave them but little time for Christian work. For 
such as these, visiting provides an open door through which 
they may pass into the sweet consciousness of doing some- 
thing for the Kingdom. To secure and interest such Visitors 
requires a personal interview. Letters at the best are cold. 
However well- written they may be they are but words. 
Golden speech, teeming with enthusiasm and earnestness, 
can be made inspiring with warmth and life. If the candi- 
date hesitates, avoid undue insistance. Be content if, for 
the time being, you can secure a promise to serve when 
needed. 

2. Securing members. — The two following in- 
stances show how one, by patience, love and tact, can 
succeed in spite of perverse conditions : 

(i) Winning a Mother. A Home Department Visitor in 
one of our smaller cities heard of a new family in the neigh- 
borhood where she was distributing lesson helps. When 
she knocked, the door was opened a few inches by a sullen- 



132 The Home Department 

faced woman, who waited for no explanation of the call, but 
promptly shut the door again. The Visitor walked away 
with tears in her eyes, but was soon comforted by the 
thought, " Thus my Master was treated ; I can bear it for 
his dear sake." 

Three months later, as she passed along that street again 
with her Home Department supplies, she came in sight of 
that house, and purposed to pass by on the other side, but a 
better thought prevailed, and she knocked at the door. This 
time it was opened a little wider, and looking into the room, 
she saw a soft quilt spread out upon the floor, and on it a 
baby and two kittens at play. Instantly she exclaimed, 
" What a dear little baby, and what cunning little kittens ! " 
and, stepping in, she sat down upon the quilt, and played 
with the baby and the kittens, then rose and went her way, 
without speaking of the Home Department or the Sunday- 
school. 

Another three months passed. Again our Visitor walked 
down that street, and rapped at that once inhospitable door. 
The baby's mother opened it, and when she saw who stood 
outside, she said, " Oh, come in, my baby is dying ! " The 
Visitor entered, took the sick child in her arms, and advised 
and comforted the poor, distracted mother. When she left 
the house that mother was a member of the Home Depart- 
ment, and had promised to send her children to Sunday- 
school. 

The baby's life was spared ; the mother and her five 
children all came, in time, to be regular attendants at the 
Sunday-school and church where the Visitor belonged, and 
the mother w^as won to Christ. 

To-day these two women are close friends, and often the 
one says to the other, " What should I ever have done with- 
out you ! How could I ever have brought up my children 
rightly but for your loving patience with me when I treated 
you so ill ? " 

(2) Winning a Grandfathe?-. When the house-to-house 
canvass of a certain town was under consideration, some of 



Methods of the Home Department 133 

the workers were afraid to visit one man, who had a reputa- 
tion for being very wicked, but one lady said, '' I will 
attempt it, by God's help." 

He lived in the country, and as she drove up to his house 
he came out, and invited her to go in and take dinner. She 
accepted the invitation, and he put her horse in the barn. 

Two Httle grandchildren, who lived with him, were soon 
won by bright picture cards and story papers, and when the 
grandfather came in they ran to him, and told him that the 
lady would give them these pretty cards if they would study 
the Sunday-school lesson every week. 

During dinner she talked with the old man and his wife 
in so persuasive a manner that they promised to study the 
lessons with the little ones. Before leaving, she said, " Have 
you not some neighbors who might like to take up the les- 
son study also? If you will speak to them about it, I will 
come again in about two weeks, and bring a supply of quar- 
terlies, cards, and papers." He promised to do so. In a 
few days she received a note, asking her to come to his 
house the next Sunday at two o'clock, instead of waiting 
two weeks. On arriving there she found that this man, of 
whom many people stood in dread, had gathered into his 
house some of his neighbors as careless as himself, and was 
all ready to have her organize a Sunday-school. 

3. Securing faithful study. — This is a vital sub- 
ject with the Home Department Visitor, for if the les- 
son is not studied, she has missed the goal for which 
she is striving, the opening of God's Word in the 
homes of the people. Methods are varied and must be 
suited to the needs of the individual. The following 
suggestions are made by Mrs. Louis Place. 

To go over a lesson with a mem^ber is one of the best 
methods. Not all of the Home Department quarterlies are 
all that could be desired, and to one who has not been ac- 



X34 ^^ Home Department 

customed to study them they certainly need explanation. 
Let the Visitor in a friendly, chatty way sit down beside the 
member and draw attention to special points of interest in 
the lesson for the coming Sabbath. Show also how the 
helps may be used to illuminate dark places, not forgetting 
to bring out the spiritual truth that seems most applicable 
to that particular life. This will arouse an interest to know 
more of the following lesson. 

A preview of the quarter's lessons is also helpful, but re- 
quires study on the part of the Visitor, that she may be able 
to speak intelligently of the underlying thought running 
through the entire quarter. Call attention to lessons of 
especial interest and speak of the pleasure with which you 
are looking forward to the study of them, and of the help 
derived from them in the past. Turn down one or two 
leaves to mark these lessons, and the next time you call be 
sure to ask which lessons were enjoyed the most. 

Special help. In many of the quarterlies there are poems 
and other quotations. Look them over and mark here and 
there one which seems especially helpful, but do not show 
them to the members. Tell her you have marked them, but 
leave her to hunt them up. If she thinks the Visitor has 
sufficient interest in her to look through the quarterly to find 
something for her, she will have interest enough to see what 
it is. I know of one superintendent who occasionally slips 
something into the quarterly ; often it is a poem or tract 
dealing with the spiritual life. At Christmas or Easter one 
may enclose a card or Perry picture, always something ap- 
propriate to the thought of the quarter, or season, or bearing 
upon the special needs of the member. 

Fellowship. It often proves helpful to speak of the 
great number who are studying the lesson in the same man- 
ner. The Home Department member is apt to have an iso- 
lated feeling and anything which will tend to strengthen 
fellowship with the Visitor or other members of the class is 
most desirable. It can sometimes be arranged that the 
members of a class can agree upon a certain hour which 



Methods of the Hom^ Department 135 

they will devote to Bible study. Though each member be 
alone, the knowledge that all are studying at the same time 
will stimulate faithfulness. If the Visitor suggest that each 
pray for the others at the lesson hour, adding that she will 
remember them all, the interest will be deepened. 

Written answers. If the helps used provide for written 
answers, the members should be encouraged to give them. 
It may be necessary for the Visitor to fill out one lesson with 
simple answers, if there is any doubt as to the member's 
ability to do so easily, that it may be used as a guider of sub- 
sequent lessons. If written answers are expected the Visi- 
tor should not fail to ask for them when bringing the new 
quarterly. A word of commendation should be given for 
the work done. This may mean far more to the member 
than the Visitor is apt to realize. 

Outline map. If the lessons are such as lend themselves 
to the study of Bible geography the Visitor may prepare an 
outline map of the country to be studied for each member of 
the class. To do this place a transparent sheet of paper the 
size of the quarterly over a colored map and trace the out- 
line including any large bodies of water and the principal 
rivers. Paste this into the quarterly. Instruct the member 
how each week the lesson may be located by the aid of the 
map in the quarterly, and ask that it be marked on the out- 
line map. If the lessons being studied include a continuous 
journey, as in the life of Christ or Paul, the route may be 
marked upon the map from week to week. This method 
will serve to fix locations in memory much more firmly than 
simply looking them up on a map in the ordinary way, 
and will prove much more interesting. 

Record envelope. This is a stumbling block in the way 
of many Visitors. So often you hear the declaration, '* I 
cannot get my class to mark the envelopes." Such Visitors 
need to concentrate their efforts on interesting the class in 
the study of the lesson and arousing their pride in a good 
record. If the Visitor should show her record book to the 
members of her class and tell them she was expected to 



136 The Home Department 

render an account of the work to the superintendent each 
quarter, and ask their cooperation in making the record of 
that particular class the best in the department, the members 
would know why it was necessary to mark the envelope and 
would not neglect to do their share toward keeping up the 
class average. If the envelopes show only now and then a 
lesson marked, you know that the member is at least hon- 
est, so do not withhold your words of appreciation, but re- 
double your efforts to interest that person in the lessons. If 
a printed report of the work of the department together 
with a letter from the superintendent is distributed among 
the classes occasionally, it will help to keep up an interest in 
the marking of the envelopes. 

Children of the Home Department. There are in the 
homes of many rural Home Department members children 
who cannot attend Sunday-school. They should be included 
in the Home Department and suitable helps provided for 
them. If they are small, the picture cards for the quarter 
can be given the mother with the request that they be given 
out one at a time when she tells the lesson story. Many a 
mother will study the lesson that she may tell the story to 
her child, though she would not study it for herself. 

A small rural school which kept open only during the 
summer months was being organized into a Home Depart- 
ment for the winter. An effort was made to secure others 
about the neighborhood to join. A worker called upon a 
mother with two small children. She showed the cards to 
the mother and told her that the children could have one 
each month if she would tell them the story. That mother 
was not in the habit of telling Bible stories to her children, 
but when she saw the eager look on the little girl's face, as 
she gazed at the bright card, she said she would do it. She 
kept her promise. As the months of the winter wore away 
the little girl began to repeat after her mother the Bible 
stories, and the father, who never attended religious meet- 
ings, would listen to them. When the Sunday-school was 
opened in the spring a "Home Department Sunday'* 



Methods of the Home Department 137 

was one of the features, and the parents brought the 
children. The entire family were soon members of the 
school, and more faithful ones could not be desired. 

The interest of the members in the lesson is apt to be what 
the Visitor makes it. If the Visitor comes into the home 
four times a year and talks of everything but the lesson, it 
will not seem of very great importance to the member. If 
the Visitor makes it her business to know the lessons, to 
talk with the members of them, to try first one method and 
then another to awaken and keep alive the interest, if she 
comes to her work with an earnest heart filled with love for 
God's Word and those to whom she is called to minister, 
there is little fear of failure. She needs ever to keep before 
her the promise, " My word shall not return unto me void, 
but shall accomplish that whereunto it is sent.'* 

4. Securing faithful work. — Mrs. J. Haskell 
of Dixon, Illinois, gives the following hints as to what 
should be done by a superintendent of a Home Depart- 
ment in order to keep his Visitors at work and insure 
that their labors shall be effective : — 

First. — At least ten days before the close of the quarter 
see that each Visitor has her quarterlies, with plainly ad- 
dressed envelopes so pasted inside that she will not have to 
open a book to see where it goes. This we do by writing 
the surname on the tip of the envelope, and letting it project 
like a bookmark. 

Second. — We superintendents should have our own 
district, and do what we expect our Visitors to do in their 
districts. So we may anticipate troubles, and give them 
help from our own experience. 

When we began this work last year, the Visitors were 
troubled as to how to answer the frequent question ; " How 
much am I expected to put in the envelope ? " 

A rich bachelor in my own district asked me this. Now he 
was a r^ood old man — not naturally generous, but ready to do 



138 The Home Department 

what he saw was duty. When I called for his first envelope, 
he said: " Now, Mrs. Haskell, IVe put twenty -five cents in 
that envelope. I don't know as that is right — what do you 
think? " For a moment I felt like Nehemiah when the 
king asked him, " For what dost thou make request? " A 
flash of prayer — and the answer came from above, and has 

helped us ever since. I said, " Why, Mr. , you and I 

are not in Sunday-school now, but if we were, of course we'd 
always give something, and you — well, I supposej^^ would 
give ten cents a Sunday, and there have been thirteen 
Sundays." 

*'Well, now," said he, "just give me that envelope." 
Leaving the room he brought it back with ^1.30 in it, and he 
has given ^1.30 every quarter since. 

Third. — Insist on getting the quarterly reports. Keep 
an "Individual Member's Record." (To accomplish this, 
insist that every envelope shall be returned you by the Visit- 
ors.) Then you can see at once who has failed to report. 
Request their Visitor to call again. If this fails, call your- 
self. The superintendent may succeed where the Visitor 
fails, and generally the envelope will be ready next time. 

In one district was a member who sent no report for the 
first two quarters. Our one little messenger was sent with her 
third quarterly, and a request for the two previous envelopes. 
She returned with the three^ and said, " The lady gave these 
and shut the door." The next quarter — no report. Then I 
sent a lovely, gentle Visitor to explain matters. She brought 

back word that Mrs. said she was willing to study, but 

she was not going to be made to report her study. 

One day I made her acquaintance in a friendly call. (Of 
course she never knew I had heard anything.) I remarked 
that I quite enjoyed my own study, but found it a little 
bother to keep a record of each lesson on my envelope. 
" Still," said I, " I'll do it, for of course it would never do 
for us to be sending free quarterlies to over two hundred 
members, and never getting reports to show that they were 
used!" 



Methods of the Home Department 139 

And, without my asking it, she brought two envelopes, 
with offerings for each, and reported her lessons verbally for 
me to mark down, and urged me to call again. It was a long 
walk, but it paid to be able to put those envelopes into that 
gentle Visitor's hand on my way to church the next Sabbath, 
saying, " Mrs. is all right now." 

Fourth.— Try to see each Visitor several times during the 
quarter, always welcoming their calls, going to see those 
who do not call, or writing to them and hy inquiries about 
their several members, cultivating personal interest in each 
one as far as possible. Suggest that they try to see their 
members at least once about the middle of the quarter, and 
ask them, " How are you getting on with the lessons ? " Tell 
them how you enjoy them yourselves. 

Much more might be accomplished, halting ones might be 
encouraged, by more frequent calls. 

Fifth. — Don't allow a class to dwindle. When one is re- 
ported as " Quit," remember that often a little prompt 
action, a little tact, a little patient effort, will turn the scale. 
One cold winter day a Visitor sent her little boy with the 
quarterJy to a beautiful home. But it came at an inoppor- 
tune time, and was rejected thus — ** No, I don't want any- 
thing more to do with that Home Department." Some time 
after, I called there and mentioned incidentally some encour- 
aging facts as to the success of our department. After a 
delightful call, the lady and her husband urging me to come 
again, she said, " By the way, will you send me that quar- 
terly?" "Certainly," said I and I mailed it next day. So 
we didn't have to wTite " withdrawn " opposite her name. 

Sixth. — Ask the Visitors to bring to the quarterly meetings 
reports, especially written ones, of any matters of interest in 
their district. Read them aloud, omitting names. At our 
last meeting one reported a letter from a member in Okla- 
homa, saying that being far removed from church and Sun- 
day-school, she had grown careless of religious duties, but 
felt that the little quarterly would help make her thoughtful, 
and a better Christian. 



140 The Ho7ne Department 

Make these quarterly meetings pleasantly social, always 
having a cup of tea before closing. Let us always tell our 
helpers of the congratulations of the pastor and the officers 
of church and Sunday-school. 

Sometimes I think we superintendents get more than our 
share of these pleasant things, and the helpers do not get 
enough. So let us pass along the encouraging things and 
take the discouragements to our great Helper who careth 
for us. 

5. How to organize. — Miss C. L. Loomis, Home 
Department Secretary of Oneida County, New York, 
suggests in her report how to organize a department : — 

Your school desires to start a Home Department. You 
have selected as a visitor Miss Jones, who is earnest and 
determined. In seeking for her first scholar she is con- 
scious of the fact that her own grandmother, living in her 
own house, has not been to Sunday-school in more than a 
year. She talks with her about it, and grandmother says 
she would be delighted to join, and that during the Sunday- 
school hour every Sunday she tries to read from her Bible. 
Here is a chance for the first scholar, so Miss Jones gives 
to her grandmother the lessons which will be studied by the 
school for the next three months, and the membership 
card, which simply requires one, unless unavoidably pre- 
vented, to spend half an hour each Sunday, or during the 
week, in the study of the weekly lesson. This pledge is 
signed by the grandmother, and given back to Miss Jones. 
The grandmother's name is then entered upon the Visitor's 
book, and she is given an envelope, which has printed on 
its face little squares running from one to fourteen in which 
she may keep the record of her own work. This envelope 
also receives her offering. Under the squares where the 
lesson is kept is another row of little squares, and in these, 
beginning with one, may be entered the amount of the 
offering, each week, until the quarter is complete, When 



Methods of the Home Department 141 

Miss Jones, as Visitor, calls upon her grandmother at the 
end of the quarter, she receives the envelope which contains 
the record of her work and offering. 

At this visit, as at other visits. Miss Jones should be pre- 
pared to answer any question about the lessons, or to talk 
about some of its principal features, and should hold, be- 
tween herself and grandmother, a little devotional exercise. 
This tends to strengthen the spirit of sincerity, reverence 
and devotion. When the visit is ended, Miss Jones takes 
away with her the envelope and offering to the main school, 
leaving in its place a new envelope, and a new quarterly, or 
set of lessons, for the next quarter. 

Miss Jones, as a Visitor, has never asked her grandmother 
to join the Home Department, but she has asked her to join 
the main school in the study of the lessons in the Home 
Class, and at the beginning she has given her grandmother 
a certificate, signed by the superintendent and the pastor, 
certifying, among other things, that the grandmother is a 
member of the school and is entitled to all its privileges. 

It is just as simple to obtain additional scholars. You 
may find a man, whose work keeps him from the school 
hour ; or a mother, shut in on account of a sick child, or 
invalid, or some household care that prevents her from at- 
tending the school. You may also find young men and 
young women, whose occupation prevents their attending 
the school ; but no matter what the case may be, the method 
of securing them as members of the school is just as simple 
as it was for Miss Jones to secure her grandmother. 

Additional Home Classes may be started by other Visitors 
in the same way. For the purpose of having an organiza- 
tion in connection with the Sunday-school, the next step 
will be to choose a superintendent, who shall have the 
supervision of the several Visitors and their work. 

It must be remembered and insisted upon, that the Home 
Department is as much a part of the main school as any of 
the other departments. The members are entitled to the 
same privileges ; their offerings are made for the same pur- 



142 The Home Department 

pose and should be paid into the treasury of the school. 
Some Visitors and superintendents of the Home Department 
do not understand this and have kept the offering by itself, 
thinking that they have the right to use it for some other 
purpose than the needs or charities of the main school. 
This was not the purpose or the plan of the originator of 
the Home Department and if kept up, will, in time, create 
the feeling that the Home Department is separate and inde- 
pendent from the main school. By their offering, as well as 
by the joint study of the lesson, they should be bound to 
the main school, taught to enter into its plans and purposes, 
and to sympathize with the desire of the superintendent for 
the welfare and success of the whole school. There should 
also be responsive action on the part of the school. 

No special day, holiday, outing, picnic, or social occa- 
sion, observed by the school, should be permitted to pass 
without an effort to have it shared in some manner by the 
members of the Home Department. In this way the re- 
lations and ties binding them to the main school will be 
strengthened. 

At the present time, says Mr. Hall, our Home Department 
army numbers over a full regiment i,ooo strong, with 55 
Visitors, and is daily touching helpfully many hundreds of 
lives. Besides our home members we have members in 
hospitals, in the Home for Incurables, in the Presbyterian 
Home, and other institutions. We have members who are 
" shut in " from ill health, and members who are abroad, yet 
keep up their reading, and send in regular reports. We 
have members in different parts of the city, and members 
out of the city, some living in other states, but the great 
majority reside in the district indicated by the chart. 

Our Visitors meet their classes as individuals, or some- 
times in groups. One Visitor meets a large class of her 
members in the church parlor, every Thursday afternoon, 
and there they study the lessons together and enjoy an hour 
of fellowship that is exceedingly encouraging and helpful to 
all Another Visitor meets her class monthly in the homes 



Methods of the Home Department 143 

of her members, each member in turn entertaining the class. 
This plan has proved a splendid success. Still another 
Visitor, who has a very large class, meets groups of her 
members in the parish house, where they study the lessons 
and spend a social hour together with admirable results. 

There is practically no limit to the increase of our Home 
Department membership. The question is. How many can 
we properly care for? It is a question of resources and 
workers. With a little readjustment we can take care of 
twelve hundred members with our present working force, 
and this number will soon be reached . 

In accepting a new member we assume a measure of 
responsibility for spiritual nurture and oversight, similar to 
that assumed in receiving a child into our Sunday-schools. 
It means a great deal more than the delivery of a Home 
Department Quarterly once in three months. It means the 
cultivation of friendship on a spiritual basis ; the outflow of 
love and sympathy ; sorrowing and rejoicing with the mem- 
bers, and in many cases, where there is need and suffering, 
extending the helping hand. 

In these ways, and by many other kindly ministries, our 
Visitors are leading their members into an appreciation of 
the good news of the gospel, and into a full acceptance of 
Jesus Christ as their Saviour. It is because it means this 
and much more, that the Home Department is so well de- 
serving of our unswerving loyalty and affection. 

It is the most valuable auxiliary of our chapel and Sun- 
day-school, because it touches in such a vital way the two 
dearest treasures of earth — home and mother. To many a 
mother kept close at home by little children and the never- 
ending round of household duties, the Home Department 
has come as a real evangel, opening up a vista of a larger 
and richer life. In many instances, home life has been 
strengthened, and new hope and courage infused by the 
transforming power of the Word and the kindly services ot 
our Visitors. 



VII 

UNIQUE HOME DEPARTMENTS 

The Home Department idea has had many novel 
applications. The following examples are given, not 
merely that they may be followed, but for the purpose 
of stimulating inventive workers to discover many more 
ways in which it can become useful. 

A POLICE DEPARTMENT 

To the English Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, 
Atlanta, Georgia, belongs the distinction of having the 
largest class of the biggest men in the city. The class 
is known as The Police Home Department Class. 
Seventy men belong to it, averaging about six feet in 
height. It includes the Chief of Police, J. W. Ball, 
two out of the three captains, nearly all the sergeants, 
and the rest are from the rank and file, besides the 
matron and a messenger boy. The class was organized 
by Catharine S. Cronk, who thus tells in The Southern 
Lutheran how she succeeded in forming it : — 

A more imposing looking class it would be hard to find. 
I was very forcibly impressed with this fact as I stood be- 
fore them trying to explain my plan for a Home Department 
Police Class. I had been so deeply interested in the plans 
I was making, so eager to get the Chief's permission to 
speak to the men about it, that I had not realized what it 
would be to introduce the movement. 

144 



Unique Home Departments 145 

Now the ordinary American citizen has a wholesome fear 
of a policeman, and I realized that I was an ordinary Ameri- 
can citizen when I suddenly found myself facing about forty 
of the largest men I had ever seen. Innumerable brass 
buttons danced before my eyes ; innumerable blue caps 
towered far above me ; innumerable '^ billies " appeared in 
menacing array before me. I am quite sure I cannot tell 
you how I explained the Home Department work, but it 
must have been explained in some way because very soon 
the captain gave permission to break ranks, and over thirty 
men came forward and shook my hand as only a six-foot 
policeman can shake a hand, and handed me cards with their 
names and addresses, promising to become members of the 
Home Department Class. 

The captain gave the order to march and they went out, 
leaving me almost dazed but delighted. 

I waited a few minutes for the next watch, which came 
off duty as the first watch went on. They had been on duty 
eight hours, since twelve o'clock the night before. They 
were tired and hungry, but they listened with interest, and 
nearly every man on the watch joined the class. 

I saw the third watch in the afternoon, and before night 
the class, which was begun that morning, had over sixty 
members. Since then, several men who were not there that 
day have asked to join it, until the number now stands at 
exactly seventy. 

Of course it is very hard to tell just what the work will 
amount to, but a member of the force told me that he had 
never seen the men as interested in any movement of a 
religious character before, and we hope the interest will 
continue. Seventy promises to study the Word of God for 
a half hour each week, if possible, means something. Sev- 
enty homes open to us, with warm personal invitations to 
visit in many of them, means something. Seventy Augsburg 
Quarterlies distributed means something. One day as I 
was walking along the street, a block ahead I saw a police- 
man off duty, waiting for a car to go home. He was reading, 



146 The Home Department 

and as I came nearer, I saw he was reading an Augsburg 
Quarterly. To see a busy man study the Word of God as 
he waits for a car means something. 

I was at police headquarters a little later and called at 
the captain's office. The captain, who was on duty, was 
not a member of the class, but as he moved to speak to me 
I saw he was reading an Augsburg Quarterly. To see a 
man who does not attend church thus with the lesson before 
him, means something. 

I went into the Chief's office and as he was out, I laid 
on his desk an Augsburg Quarterly. To see the Word of 
God thus placed above the record of crimes and the descrip- 
tion of criminals, means something. It is the Lord who 
said of His word, "It shall not return unto me void, but it 
shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in 
the thing whereto I sent it." 

Whenever one of this stalwart class is sick, some 
flowers and a message of sympathy are sent to him, and 
in other ways Miss Cronk keeps in touch with them. 
She writes that the chief of the fire department has 
given permission to organize a Home Department 
among the firemen, and the superintendent of the 
street railway has also consented to forming one among 
its employees — one hundred men in the first case and 
eight hundred in the other. In every city there should 
be a Police Home Department, a Firemens' Home 
Department, Street Railway Home Department — or 
perhaps the latter were better divided into Conductors' 
Home Department and Motormen's Home Department. 

Telephone Home Departments. — How one was 
started is thus told by Dr. W. A. Duncan : — 

One Sunday evening, at the close of a very interesting serv- 
ice in one of the most successful churches in the Central 



Unique Home Departments 147 

Westj I was discussing with the officers of the Sunday-school 
the plan of a Home Department in connection with their 
already well-equipped Sunday-school. The officers seemed 
to feel that such a department was unnecessary, stating with 
a good deal of confidence that they had already enrolled 
every one that was available. As we were talking, I pointed 
to a peculiar-looking contrivance on the wall of the audience- 
room. I had noticed it with some interest during the even- 
ing service, and asked the superintendent what it was. He 
stated that it was a telephone connected with the home of 
an invalid young lady, a member of the church and Sun- 
day-school, who used the telephone to hear the addresses and 
the singing, both in the church and Sunday-school services. 
These, with the prayers, were all that she could make out, 
for the teaching in the school was only a confused hum. I 
suggested that, if it were not too late, I would be glad to 
have the officers and superintendent visit the invalid with 
me, and, the proposition being cordially accepted, we were 
soon in her home. 

It was a small but daintily furnished room, with flowers 
on the table, and a Bible on the stand by her side. A tele- 
phone receiver was lying on the bed, and at the head of the 
bed there was a small steel crane, which was used when the 
invalid was moved from the bed to an easy chair. She was 
sitting upright, supported by pillows, with the telephone in 
her right hand. For more than a dozen years she had been 
unable to attend church or Sunday-school services, yet had 
been aggressively active along certain lines of religious 
work. When I was introduced to her, she greeted me with 
a smile, and said : 

" I was so glad to hear you this evening, and could under- 
stand every word you said. What a comfort these tele- 
phones are ! I have just been talking over the long 'phone 
with a sick friend in the City Hospital. I can understand 
everything in the Sunday services but the study of the les- 
son, but I suppose I shall never again visit the school and 
enjoy that,'* 



148 The Home Department 

I explained to her the plan and purpose of the Home 
Department, and suggested that, if she were a member, she 
could study the lesson at home at the same time that it was 
being studied in the school, and that, with the telephone and 
a Home Department quarterly, she could once more enjoy 
the privileges of Sunday-school membership. 

Her face brightened with an intense interest as she said, 
" Why, I have never heard of this, or anything like it. How 
beautiful it would be if I could once more belong to my 
beloved Sunday-school ! I keep in touch with our mission- 
ary circle, but I have never thought it possible to again belong 
to the Sunday-school." 

After a moment's thought, she said, " There are several 
elderly women, neighbors of ours, who, on account of age, 
will probably never again attend either church or Sunday- 
school. Might they not join a home class with me, and study 
here in my room? " 

" Yes," I replied, *' that is a part of the working plan of the 
Home Department." 

After a few minutes of silence, she said with great tender- 
ness : " I have not had the communion since I was an invalid. 
Would it not be a part of the Home Department work to 
permit me to have the Lord's Supper administered to me 
again ? " 

" Certainly," was the reply. 

''And these old ladies, who never expect to go to church 
again, might they have it also ? " 

" Certainly," I answered ; " I am sure your pastor will be 
glad to comply with your request, if it is made known to 
him." 

A year passed by. Books, pictures and Home Depart- 
ment quarterlies were arranged for, a Visitor appointed to 
look after their delivery, and personal letters were exchanged. 
When late in the autumn of 1901 a second visit was made to 
the home of the invalid, and arrangements made with the 
faithful pastor to regularly administer the Lord's Supper to 
her and the elderly women who were to meet in her sick 



Unique Home Departments 149 

chamber, the utmost delight and satisfaction were expressed 
by her for the new light and life that had come into her home 
through membership in the Home Department of the Sun- 
day-school. A letter subsequently received by the writer, 
from a friend, says : " One of the old ladies who partook of 
communion at her (the invalid's) house has since died. I was 
so happy to think she had that comfort." 

A still more remarkable Telephone Home Depart- 
ment is one that is carried on in Darwin, Meigs County, 
Ohio. A vigorous-minded cripple, who has been unable 
to walk for twenty years, conceived the idea of trying 
to have the members resolve themselves into a telephone 
Sunday-school. It was discovered that fifty families 
could be reached through party telephone lines, where- 
upon the cripple undertook to secure the cooperation of 
as many as possible in his new plan. Several families 
joined in the movement. The school meets at nine 
o'clock, the attendance is marked, and the session 
begins. A song is announced and all join in the sing- 
ing. Prayer is offered by one previously selected. The 
lesson is then taught by the one upon whom such duty 
that day devolves. The session closes at ten o'clock. 
This Telephone Home Department has been in success- 
ful operation for more than a year, and now enrolls 
eleven families. An effort is being made to reach many 
of the other fifty homes on the telephone line. 

Prison Home Departments. — Of these there are 
quite a number, and there should be many more. Per- 
haps the following account of the one in Salem, Oregon, 
will lead some to start Home Departments in prisons 
accessible to them : — 



150 The Home Department 

The State Sunday-school missionary of Oregon, commis- 
sioned by the American Sunday-School Union, held a service 
at the state penitentiary, and at its close asked for members 
for a Home Department class. Thirty-seven joined. 

There is no chaplain in the institution, yet they usually 
have a Sunday morning service of some kind ; but to have a 
Sunday-school, and have the prisoners study the Bible, 
seemed impossible. The Home Department meets the need 
wondrously. 

A noble Christian woman is in the habit of visiting the 
prisoners on Sunday afternoons (they are all locked in their 
cells at this time), and she tells us that she often finds the 
men behind the bars studying the lesson, some with open 
Bibles before them. 

The two following notes, found enclosed in the Home 
Department envelopes, show how some feel about it: 

Salem, Ore., July i, 1900. 

Rev. W. R. WiNANS, 

My Dear Sir : I have the pleasure of telling you that I 
have carefully read the first and second quarter of the Amer- 
ican Sunday-school series, which you had the kindness to 
send me, and I can assure you, sir, that I appreciate them 
very much, and also the interest you have taken towards our 
welfare, and wish you success in your effort. Kindly accept 
this note as a token of friendship, as it is all I have to offer 
you, and I regret that I am not in a position to do more. 

Very truly yours, 

3594.' 

Brother or Sister^ I havnt no money While i am here But 
i will not forget it Wen i get free my time Will soon be up 
i am very glad to get the Sunday lessons for my mother raised 
me that Way for a mother is the only friend that a Boy has. 

Yours truly 

no. 4124 Cell no. 70 

1 These men are known only by number, not by name. 



Unique Home Departments 151 

At the end of each quarter some Sunday-school 
worker is secured to conduct a quarterly review. At 
the close of one review the interest was so great that 
some of the prisoners and some of the employees also 
thanked the worker and desired that he would come 
again, and the next day one of the highest prison officials 
called to express his obligations for the good that had 
been done. 

A Home Department for the Blind. — That 
also is in Salem, Oregon, and is located in the Institute 
for the Blind. Some of the members receive the re- 
port envelopes from some of the Sunday-schools, while 
others belong to the American Sunday-School Union 
Class. All study raised type. A number of copies of 
Sunday-school helps in raised type had been regularly 
sent to the institution, but they were very little used. 
After the Home Department Class was organized, every 
copy of the lessons was in use, and more were needed. 
When vacation came, the pupils were allowed to take the 
helps to their homes. 

Primary and Junior Home Departments. — 
Mrs. J. A. Walker, superintendent of the Primary De- 
partment of Plymouth Congregational Church, Denver, 
Colo,, has started in connection with her school a Pri- 
mary and Junior Home Department Class, in which 
the mother or father of the children in her Primary 
Department agrees to study the lesson for one-half hour 
each week and teach the lesson story and Golden Text 
to the children. Mrs. Walker has induced some fifty 
families to organize Home Classes of this character, 
resulting in a total enrolment of about two hundred 



15^ 77ie Home Department 

students. It is a most practical and successful applica- 
tion of the family Home Class, and has greatly in- 
creased the efficiency of the Home Department of that 
school through a new and helpful interest in the homes 
of the children in the Junior and Primary Departments. 
Many of the parents have already expressed a desire 
to unite with the church as a result of their efforts to 
teach the children in the homes. The secretary of the 
N. Y. State Sunday-School Association has published a 
pledge card and a circular explaining the plan and 
urging parents to adopt it. We commend this Home 
Department method to all churches and schools. 

The following is a copy of the application card for 
parents to sign : — 

Primary and Junior Home Department Class 



SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

I desire to join the Primary and Junior Home Department Class of 

-Sunday-school. 



I promise to study the regular Bible lesson at least half an hour each week 
and to teach my child the lesson story and Golden Text, unless prevented by 
some good cause. 

I will inform the Superintendent if I desire to withdraw from membership. 

Name r— 



Address- 



Date- 



"Starch the aoriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life.'* 

A Primary and Junior Home Department is carried 
on at Ore Hill, Conn., concerning which the superin- 
tendent, Carrie A. Gibbs, gives the following facts ; — 



Unique Home Departments 153 

W« have in our Home Department at Ore Hill, Conn., 
about 130 children. We make a specialty of caring for the 
children when we find them without the privileges of a Sun- 
day-school. We form Home Department classes for them 
when practicable. Next, we endeavor to obtain a promise 
from parents or other friends to instruct the children. So 
we include and provide for every member of the home, from 
the baby in its cradle, to the grandmother in her easy chair. 

**A Texas Idea.'^ — The '' Texas Idea" was con- 
ceived by Rev. J. S. Taylor of Dallas. The plan was 
to make each pupil in the Sunday-school a Home De- 
partment Visitor to enroll his father, mother, grand- 
parents, and any others in the household in the Home 
Department. He is furnished a ^^ Home Study Slip/' 
first, for himself, by the signing of which he pledges 
himself to study the current lesson at least half an hour 
during the week. Then he is given other slips for the 
other members of the family, which he carries each 
Sunday to his teacher, who keeps the record in his 
class book of the work done by these Home Depart- 
ment students in the same way as is done with the 
other members of the class. 

The following are some of the good results flowing 
from the working of this plan. 

1. It insures that the lesson shall be studied at 
home by the pupil. 

2. It creates and fosters in the pupil a missionary 
spirit — an interest in others. No pupil can become a 
Home Department Visitor and a Home Department 
messenger combined, without developing into more or 
less of a missionary. 

3. Mothers become not only interested in the school, 



154 ^<^ Home Department 

and through the '^ Home Study Slip " in the lesson, 
but they find pleasure in helping the son or daughter 
to study the lesson. 

4. The department is frequently extended beyond 
the home^ and neighbors are included in the circle. 

A Hospital Home Class. — While superintendent 
of a Home Department, Christina S. Hyatt of Seattle, 
Washington, formed a Home Department of the in- 
mates of the city hospital. While a member of this 
class, Mr. M. was converted. He was sixty- 
eight years old, a confirmed invalid, and getting about 
only by the aid of two crutches. Miss Hyatt thus tells 
of what this man, with all his disabilities, was enabled 
to accomplish for the Master : — 

So blessed was he in this Bible study that it proved to be 
the step to his open door of service ; for, with some Chris- 
tian friends outside the hospital, he soon agitated organizing 
a Union Sunday-school in that vicinity. Accordingly, pre- 
liminaries were hastened, and with his pockets full of illus- 
trated lesson cards to interest the children, he canvassed 
diligently. Of the thirty-two pupils present at the opening 
session, he brought in eleven. 

In due time, a church was also organized, and the Sunday 
the school marched from temporary accommodations to 
their own cozy edifice, singing " Marching to Zion," 

Mr. M. on his crutches was the happy leader of one 

hundred and two children. 

During four years he labored with undaunted zeal. He 
continually found new pupils for the Sunday-school; he 
solicited funds to purchase three pulpit chairs. He was 
richly blessed in spiritual growth and fruit. Having finished 
his mission, his body was laid to rest January i, 1904, from 
the little church, at the Sunday-school hour, amidst many 
devoted friends, both young and old. 



Unique Home Departments 155 

A Mothers' Home Department. — A large and 
successful Home Department, says Mrs. Julia M. 
Terhune, of Brooklyn^ N. Y., is the outgrowth of a 
very small meeting for mothers. It was organized by 
the teacher of a primary class, which numbered about 
five hundred little children, in a mission school, in a 
tenement district. The teacher had visited the homes 
frequently, and was dearly loved by the mothers, who 
freely told her all their cares and sorrows. She had 
often tried to get them interested in the study of God's 
Word at home, but with little success. To study a 
lesson every day seemed altogether too hard a thing to 
promise, and to give a " report " of the work done was 
an impossibility. 

When she started the mothers' meetings, just a few 
came in response to her cordial invitation, and those 
perhaps who least needed help ; but they told others, 
and soon the numbers grew. At first nothing was said 
about studying the lesson at home, but each week it 
was read and explained to them in a way they could 
clearly understand. Soon their interest was awakened, 
and they began to want to know more, and before they 
knew it they were regularly studying every day. Soon 
they found themselves telling at the meeting what verse 
had been in their minds all the week, and what comfort 
it had brought, and how the great thoughts of God and 
his love had lifted them out of and above some of their 
daily misery. Soon lips unused to offering prayer were 
opened to offer praise to God for salvation, and to sup- 
plicate like mercy for husband and children. 

More than one hundred and twenty-five women be- 



156 The Home Department 

long to that Home Department, and are reverently 
studying the lessons. What results are already known ? 
A number have confessed their faith in Christ, and 
have united with the church. Some have brought their 
husbands with them. Others have been instrumental 
in bringing their mothers, sisters or relatives, who had 
forgotten their vows to God, and had long been back- 
sliders. 

Then as soon as these women became real students, 
they began to take thought for others. Poor as they 
were, they found that even out of their poverty they 
could spare a penny or a nickel for the Lord's box, and 
so they were able to give generously to missions, and 
to others poorer than themselves. Then they saw a 
way to **give themselves." They had known that the 
beloved teacher had a great class and very few helpers, 
but none had ever thought that meant anything of per- 
sonal responsibility ; but ** The entrance of thy words 
giveth light," and soon one after another began to feel 
that she might at least help to keep the children in 
order, and now eight of them are each Sunday in their 
places in the primary class, and two who were abso- 
lutely unable to come have sent their daughters. 

To appreciate what self-sacrifice this involves, it is 
only necessary to say that these are women who work 
hard all the week, some of them being the only wage- 
earners in the family. One of them cooks the break- 
fast and dinner for seven, gets her five children ready 
for Sunday-school, and goes with them to be one of the 
most efficient helpers in the overflowing primary class. 
Several of the mothers have left the meeting for a 
better land. 



Unique Home Departments 157 

One, when very ill in the hospital, was visited by 
the teacher. Before seeing the woman, she was warned 
by the physician in charge not to allow the patient to 
speak, as her condition was so critical. But the mo- 
ment the teacher entered, the woman said : " It is no 
use to tell me I must not speak. I must say what is on 
my heart. I know that I shall not get well, but I am 
not afraid to die. I want to thank you again for that 
blessed mothers' meeting where I learned to study the 
Word of God, and where I learned to know and to love 
my Saviour. I want you to say good-bye for me to the 
dear mothers, and tell them that we shall meet again 
in heaven." No words can tell of the mighty influences 
for good which have had their origin in this humble 
" Mothers' Home Department." 



VIII 

HOME DEPARTMENT REQUISITES 

The requisites for the Home Department are few and 
inexpensive. That fact is one which commends it. No 
great outlay is needed to start and to carry it on. It is 
difficult to see how the same amount of effective evangel- 
istic effort in any other form could be made so cheaply. 
Of course the devices may be multiplied, and so the 
cost increased, but, as planned, the expense is but sHght, 
the main outgo being in the lesson helps, and they, in 
most cases, are paid for by the Home Class members. 

The following forms have been lately devised by the 
writer to fit the present needs of the work as it has been 
developed, as shown in the preceding pages. These 
forms have been adopted by the International Home 
Department Association, and stand for the conception 
which its president and the executive committee now 
have of the best methods of prosecuting the work. In 
so far as they radically differ from those hitherto in use, 
or suggest new ideas, doubtless they will be followed by 
the different denominational publishing houses and State 
Sunday-school associations, if not verbatim et literatim^ 
yet in a general way. So far, the publishing houses 
making use of the Home Department have copied only 
those forms which hardly could be changed without 
detriment. Each one has preferred, and wisely, to get 

up its own explanatory circular and some of the other 

158 



Home Department Requisites 159 

appliances. In all probability this method will still be 
pursued, and those wishing Home Department requisites 
are respectfully referred to their own denominational 
publishing house. The forms here given are copyrighted 
by The Congregational Sunday-School and Publishing 
Society, for the reasons already given. If any religious 
body desires to make use of them, apph cation should be 
made for the privilege. 

In attempting to start a Home Department, the first 
thing necessary is a circular which clearly explains its 
purpose and plan, that it may be distributed among 
those who are to adopt it and carry it on. The more 
intelligent the apprehension of what it is designed to 
accompHsh the greater will be the momentum with 
which all will move in it. The following is the circular 
prepared : — 

Form A 
HOME DEPARTMENT OF THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

-^- The Home Department is that department of the 

. . Sunday-school in which are enrolled those persons who 

for various reasons do not attend the sessions of the 

Sunday-school, but who are willing to study the lessons at home 

at least a half hour each week. 

While there are some whose reasons for not joining in the study 
of the Bible in the Sunday-school are trivial, there are many who 
would like to do so, but are shut out from its privileges by force of 
circumstances. There are, for instance, the aged, the infirm, 
invalids, those who have the care of young children or of the sick, 
those who live at too great a distance from the church, isolated 
families and communities where there is neither preaching service 
nor Sunday-school. Again, there are those whose business takes 
them away from home most of the time, so that they cannot regu- 
larly go to any Sunday-school, such as commercial travelers, rail- 
road conductors^ brakemen and other railway employes, postal 



i6o The Home Department 

route clerks, druggist clerks, night watchmen, civil engineers on 

duty, boatmen, etc. Still further, there are those whose stay in a 

place is merely temporary, whose local attachments are weak, such 

as students in colleges and academies, clerks in stores and offices, 

boarders, etc. Such, if they cannot be induced to attend the 

Sabbath-school itself, may perhaps be induced to join the Home 

Department. 

^T- . , . In starting a Home Department the first thing to 

- do is to canvass the field. To that end the terri- 
organized . ,. . , , , ,. . . 

tory is districted, and each district is assigned to 

a Visitor whose duty it is to visit every family, not known to be 

already connected with some church or Sunday-school, and solicit 

every individual either to join the main school or the Home 

Department. Incidentally the Visitor also cordially invites each 

non-attendant to the services of the church. By this canvass 

should be ascertained : i. Who do not attend church or Sunday^ 

school. 2. Who will attend both or either. 3. Who will join the 

Home Department. A Visitor should not be asked to look after 

more than fifteen to twenty-five families. The corps of Visitors 

act under the direction of the Home Department superintendent, 

to whom they should make their reports. 

-. f ^ . -r . The Home Department is simply a depart- 
Its relationship ^ c ^i. o ^ 1,1 i •. 

^ .- - , ment of the Sunday-school, as close m its 

to the school ^. ^i, c • t . ^- *. 

connection as the Senior, Intermediate or 

Primary Departments. Its superintendent should be chosen in the 
same way as are the heads of the other departments, and should 
act under the direction of the superintendent of the Sunday-school 
and the executive committee. Its Visitors should be ranked along 
with the teachers in the other departments. Its members should 
be counted in with the rest of the school, and their study of the 
lesson should be regarded as the equivalent of personal attendance 
upon the school. Being upon a par with the other scholars, the 
members of the Home Department should be entitled to the use 
of the library and to participation in all the Sunday-school socials, 
picnics, entertainments, lectures, etc. The Department makes 
quarterly and annual reports to the main school, and similar 
reports of the whole school should be made to its members. 



Home Department Requisites i6i 

The Home Department, like any other department, is 

made up of classes. These classes are known as 
Cl3,SSGS 

Home Classes. Home Classes take on several forms. 

They may be : — 

1. Individual Classes. In these the members study inde- 
pendently of each other. They may live in the same neighbor- 
hood or be widely scattered. In these it is possible to unite in 
study those who are traveling with those who stay at home, those 
who remove to distant places with those who remain in the Home 
School, those who are sick and infirm with those who are well and 
strong. Classes of this order may be of indefinite number, accord- 
ing to the ability of the Visitor to take care of and see to its wants. 

2. Family Classes. It will now and then happen that a family 
is unable to attend the church or Sunday-school by reason of dis- 
tance, want of suitable clothing, sickness, or other reason, who will 
be glad to pursue the study of the Sunday-school lesson together. 
Such a Home Class should be in every home, whether its members 
are in the Sunday-school or not. 

3. Neighborhood Classes. In some localities some will pre- 
fer to meet in the home of one of their number for the purpose of 
studying and talking over the lesson together, under the leadership 
of one whom they may select. Thousands of such Neighborhood 
Classes are in operation in country neighborhoods which are too 
remote from church and school to permit of attendance upon them. 

4. Correspondence Classes. The name suggests their charac- 
ter. With the consent of the Home Department superintendent, 
any one desiring to start such a class may do so and be its conduc- 
tor. Correspondence may be opened up with lumber and mining 
camps, isolated individuals, families and communities. Lesson 
helps, report-collection envelopes, etc., of course can be sent by 
mail, and the reports and offerings be returned in the same way. 

A Home Class frequently is constituted of two or more of these 

forms. Thus it may be partly individual, and partly family, and 

partly neighborhood, etc. That is regarded as a Home Class which 

is under the care of a Visitor. 

_. ^ To carry on the Home Department there are 

Its corps of , , ^j. . ,^ J- . . . . 

_ needed as many Visitors as there are districts to 

be canvassed and looked after. Usually ladies 



1 62 The Home Department 

are selected to act, inasmuch as generally they can command the 
requisite time and have more tact. Many church-members who have 
no gift for teaching in the Sunday-school can do this work well. 
In some cases the Young People's Societies of Christian Endeavor 
have furnished a band of zealous young people for this purpose. It 
is the duty of the Visitors, first, to canvass the whole field, and 
then, after the Home Classes have been organized from that can- 
vass, to visit the Home Class members regularly, at the end of 
each quarter, to carry new lesson helps, report-collection envelopes, 
etc., and to receive the reports and the offerings for the quarter. 
They should go as much oftener as occasion may require. They 
should report to the pastor the coming in of new families, cases of 
sickness, affliction, poverty and distress of any kind, the desire on 
the part of any for religious conversation. Thus they are a Pastor's 
Aid Society. The Visitors hold quarterly conferences under the 
Home Department superintendent. 

T-t 1 /li^ ^ ^ simple pledge that one will study the Sunday- 
-^ ^ *- . school lesson a half hour each week constitutes 
■^ that person a member of the Home Depart- 
ment. The pledge may be written or oral only. Upon its being 
given, the Visitor enrolls the name in her Home Class and supplies 
the new member with a lesson Quarterly, report-collection envelope, 
or envelope and report card. Whether the necessary requisites 
shall be furnished by the school free of expense, or whether they 
shall be charged for, must be left mainly to the good judgment of 
the Visitor. Sometimes a certificate of membership is given. This 
identifies the holder's right to tickets to socials, entertainments, etc. 
If one is unprepared upon the first visit to make the pledge, the 
leaflet entitled " The Home Department Plan " (Form B) should 
be left, with a Quarterly, that it may be further considered. 
__- It will help to give the Department an esprit 

- jy .. de corps, if occasionally there should be a 

Home Department social for the purpose of 
making the members mutually acquainted. The pastor, superin- 
tendent, teachers and Visitors should be present at this social, 
together with such other Christian workers in the church as it may 
be advisable to invite, with a view to bringing the members into 
more cordial relations with the church and school. There should 



Home Department Requisites 163 

. be a Home Department Day in the Sunday-school, now and then, 

on which all the members of the Home Classes shall be invited to 

be present. Review Sunday would be an appropriate day for this. 

They should be remembered also upon such special occasions as 

Easter, Children's Day, Christmas, etc. Some pastors annually or 

oftener preach a sermon to the Home Department. Such a sermon 

advertises the Home Department, and so prepares the way for its 

extension, as well as benefits its present members. 

-_^ - ^^ -^- The Home Department is no longer an 

The bene£ts of the . t. .• i,r. x, v. 

w n --^ ^ experiment. Its practicability has been 

^ thoroughly demonstrated. It has been 

adopted by all of the leading denominations and is being pushed 
vigorously by them. It has been endorsed by the International and 
World's Sunday-School Conventions and by many State and Provin- 
cial associations. Its benefits may be thus summarized : — 

I-. It increases attendance upon the main school. In almost 
every instance the Home Department becomes a feeder to the 
main school. 

2. It furnishes an effective method for evangelizing the field 
covered by a church. A corps of Visitors regularly canvassing its 
territory is a great reinforcement to the church. 

3. It comforts and helps invalids. Said one who had been "shut 
in " for ten years : " It seems good to feel that I belong with Chris- 
tians and am doing something in common with them." 

4. It recovers backsliders. The effect of home study of the 
Bible is to bring them back again into the church. 

5. It develops family religion. The members of a family 
cannot study the Bible together without being brought face to face 
with those questions which relate to their souls' salvation. 

6. It increases church attendance. Interest in Bible study is 
always followed by an interest in the services of the church. 

7. It develops Christian workers. Nothing is better adapted to 
make Christians effective laborers for Christ than to appoint them 
as Visitors in the Home Department. The churches need this 
agency for its splendid discipline. It furnishes something specific 
for the members of a church to do, which is within their power, 
and which will be productive of great results. 

Wherever it has been thoroughly tried, the Home Department 



164 The Home Department 

has been found to be a great evangelistic agency. It is calculated 
to reach those individuals and families who are without the gospel 
in a gospel land, and for whom the church is responsible. The 
plan is simple, inexpensive and effective. By all means adopt it. 
__ n *^ Each denomination prepares its own requi- 

, ^ . ., sites, and they may be obtained by address- 

ment Requisites . ,. i^ i, 1 c ^ • i, 

^ ing the Sunday-school Secretary m each 

case. In cases where neither the school nor the Home Department 
members are able to provide that which is needed, application for 
aid in purchasing the material may be made by the Sunday-schools 
to the Sunday-school Secretary of the denomination to which they 
belong. The Home Department material is classified as follows : — 

I. THE OUTFIT 

The Home Department of the Sunday-school (Form 

A — as above), per hundred, $1.00. 
The Home Department Plan (Form B), per hun- 
dred, 50 cents. 
Pledge Card (Form C), per hundred, 50 cents. 
Report-collection Envelope (Form E), per hundred, 

40 cents. Or Report Card (Form D), per hundred, 

50 cents. 
Membership Certificate (Form F), per hundred, 50 cents. 
Home Department Messenger's Certificate (Form G), 

per hundred, 50 cents. 
Visitor's Home Class Book (Form H), per dozen, 50 cents. 
Visitor's Quarterly Report Blank (Form I), per 

hundred, Ji.oo. 
Home Department Superintendent's Record Book 

(FormK). 

II. THE LESSON HELPS. Each school should order its 

own denominational lesson helps, supplying the Home 
Class members according to their grades, as in the main 
school. Some will be advanced enough to require the 
helps usually given to teachers. 
The above-named supplies, if not obtainable from one's own pub- 
lishing house, can be ordered of the Congregational Sunday-School 
and Publishing Society, either at Boston, Chicago o New York. 



Home Department Requisites 165 

Note. — If planning for a Home Department of about fifty, with five Visitors, 
the first order should be for a Home Department Superintendent's Record Book, 
5 Visitor's Books; 50 The Home Department of the Sunday-school (Form A), 
for distribution to workers; 100 Home Department Plan (Form B), for distribu- 
tion in the canvass; 50 Report-Collection Envelopes (Form E), or a like number 
of Report Cards (Form D), and separate envelopes; 50 Pledge Cards (Form C) ; 
and other blanks as may be decided upon. The lesson helps can be ordered 
after it is ascertained what kind and number are needed. 

In many cases the Visitor will find that the person 
solicited is not ready to give assent. Most people, in 
fact, prefer to think a matter over before making any 
pledge concerning it. In the majority of instances 
it will be better to suggest that the subject can be further 
considered, and then leave with the individual an ex- 
planatory leaflet, a Quarterly, and the report card. In 
some cases this will be absolutely necessary, as when a 
wife would like to induce a husband to join her in making 
the promise, etc. The leaflet to be left under such cir- 
cumstances reads as follows : — 

Form B 
THE HOME DEPARTMENT PLAN 

The Home Department is that department of the Sunday- 

■ , . school in which are enrolled those who are not regular 
it is 

attendants upon the Sunday-school itself. Any one can 

become a member of it by simply agreeing to spend a half hour 

each week in studying the current Sunday-school lesson. We trust 

that you will permit your name to be enrolled in this department. 

Of course you are absolved from keeping it by reason of sickness 

or other unavoidable cause, but you will see how little time is 

required to keep the promise. Further, the promise is for no 

definite period, and can be withdrawn at any time by simply giving 

notice to the Visitor or to the Home Department superintendent. 

It is hoped, however, that your interest in the department will be 

such that you will not wish to sever your connection with it, or, 

if so, that it will be only to join the main school. 



1 66 The Home Department 

-Tfi A f rf ^^ becoming a member of the Home 
^ Department you come into connection with 
our Sunday-school. We cordially welcome 
you as one with us. We assure you of our fellowship and of our 
wish to be of service to you. You will have the advantage of the 
excellent lesson helps taken by the school, and can study with us 
in your own home the lessons which we take up in the school. 
You are entitled to the free use of our library, of which we hope 
that you will avail yourself. You will be invited to all our Sunday- 
school socials, picnics, entertainments, etc. You are urged to come 
into the main school as often as you can find it convenient, and 
when there, will be placed in a class or can remain as a visitor at 
your choice. 
^^ Consider the fact that the International Sunday-school 

- Lessons present a course of study of which you can 
^ thus avail yourself. They are arranged upon a plan, and 
to study the Bible with a plan is far better than private, desultory 
reading or study. Millions of people are engaged in following out 
the scheme pursued by them. You have seen the result in the 
increase of interest in the Word of God. Examine the Quarterly 
carefully, noting its map, its treatment of the lessons and all of 
its aids, and see how much help you can get from it in studying 
the lessons. It is a full and inexpensive commentary. Will you 
not avail yourself of it and of the wide fellowship of study into 
which it will bring you? 

Should you become a member of the Home Depart- 

. ment, an envelope will be left with you in which you 

^ can place such offerings as you choose to make for the 

objects to which the school contributes. This offering is in no sense 

obligatory, and you can make it as much or little as you like. It is 

left with you that you may share in all the privileges of the school. 

^^^ You will keep your own record of the study of the 

lesson each Sunday upon the envelope or the report 

^ card, as indicated. At the end of the quarter, the 

Visitor will call for the report and furnish you a new blank, together 

with the lesson helps for the next quarter. From all the reports 

thus gathered up, the Home Department will make up its quarterly 

report to the main school, and this report will be transmitted to 



Home Department Requisites 167 

you, or the Visitor will inform you of the progress of the Home 
Department and of the main school. 

We trust that this plan, so simple and presenting such advan- 
tages will so commend itself to you that you will unhesitatingly 
permit your name to be enrolled as a member of our Home 
Department. Faithfully yours. 

Home Department Superintendent. 

The pledge card, known as the membership card, 
may be used or not according to the judgment of the 
Visitor. There are people who will refuse to join at all 
if they are required to pledge themselves in writing to do 
anything. The moment that they are asked to sign a card, 
the undertaking assumes such magnitude and solemnity 
that they will not enter into it. On the other hand, 
there are a large number who will unhesitatingly sign, 
and who will feel themselves more bound than if they 
had given only an oral pledge. The mission of the 
Visitor is accomplished when a binding promise is 
secured, whether it be written or oral. Experience has 
shown that it is not best to do away with the pledge card 
altogether. The form adopted, good for four signatures, 
is the following : — 

MEMBERSHIP CARD. rosif C 



" Search tfj£ Scriptures : for fn tfjem ge tfjinfe ge !ja6e eternal life." 

I agree to join the HOME DEPARTMENT of the ^^, .™r.,.».....^.^—..,^««=r=:». -^. 

Sunday>schooI, and to spend at least half an hour each Sunday, or during the 
week, in the study of the lesson for that day, unless prevented by sickness or other 
good cause. I will continue my cnembersKip until I notify the Superintendent of 
vtrithdmwal. 



'• %^ tlje feorH 3? ei)rigt tj&jcll in gau rirfjig." 



i68 



The Home Department 



When the pledge has been secured, the Visitor should 
deliver to the new Home Class member, with the 
Quarterly, the report-collection envelope, designed, as 
will be seen, both to contain the offerings and to serve 
as a report card. The face of the envelope thus 
appears : — 




"The op«ftlng of thy words giveth light." — Ps. 119:130. 

HOMn DMBARTMBNT. Home Class No 



«.Sunday-school. 



Name, . 



Residence,. 



Report for Quart 


sr 














.to ;..I89 




LESSON NO. . 


I 


It 


■Ill 


~iv" 


V 


VI 


VII 


vm 


IX X 


XI 


XII 


Xltl 


XIV 


TOTAL, 


LESSON STUDY AND 
ATTENDANCE. 


- 


— 


- 


- 






















OFFERINa 










i 













In the blank space for it, mark your study of the Ie$son in the above diagram thus /,and 
your attendance on the main school with an X- Record your ofTerings wsek by week, and 
place them in the envelope, which will be called for at the close of the quarter, and another 
left in its place. 

Coptrttlu, 18M, &j» Oofigrt^tmaX Sttndag'.Sciool and PtAUshdtg SoeiUg. 



The Report- collection Envelope will serve admir- 
ably for individuals, but where there are several in the 
same family, a report card is better, with a separate 
envelope into which all can put their contributions : — 





HOME CLASS REPORT CARS 

4b the blafik space for the day, record yom study of the lesson by as 
Itleodance on the main school by a£ x. 


incttned 


FobmD 
maifc, thBS /, or yoo* 


1 


3£ome department of 


Sunday ScficcC 


1 




Class No 

NAMES OF MEMBERS. 


MONTH OF 


BflONTH OF 


MONTH OF 


H 


i 


X 


a 


3 


4 


5 


I 


a 


3 


4 


5 


. 


a 


3 


4 


5 




































(5" 




































1" 

i 




































































1 


Missionary Offerings 












„„ 


1 

















Unless called for, this Card, when filled, should be returned to ........ 

' ^-.«..n,..«>w.vwre,-.TO5TJv«.»-^^«.»rnr&. Street, whec oncther Cartl vrll be sent you. 



Home Department Requisites 169 

In some Home Departments it has been deemed 
advisable to issue a membership certificate to each one 
joining the Home Department. Some appear really to 
prize this documentary proof of their connection with 
the Sunday-school, but it has, besides, its practical value 
in identifying the members of the Home Department as 
rightfully entitled to tickets for socials, lectures, concerts, 
picnics, etc. A good form for such a certificate is here 
given : — 

FoisC 

. • * JKctnber5l)tp 'Certificate . . . 

Having: agreed to Study the Sunday-school lesson at least a half-hour each week. 

Cfti^ ^ertifieief that , —is eowiwi 

a member of our 
And b entitled to all the privileges of our Sunday-schoOL^ 



Horn Vepartnuttt Sup^uitindml 

As has been noted, a messenger service has been 
established in connection with some Home Departments 
to relieve the Visitor of the necessity of delivering 
library books and other heavy matter. In this service 
both boys and girls have been enlisted. A neat card 
certificate has been given to them that they might have 
it to show both to the librarian and to the members of 
the Home Classes in collecting the books. The certifi- 
cate, which of course must be taken up whenever there 
is any misuse of it, is thus worded : — 



170 The Home Department 

"C^'^B tin t^e ousfltngtrs of x\t c^^eiJ* 

'^4-(0ME^EPARTMENT 

— -^ — Sunday 'ScJiooL 

^f)i|{ 4Ltttiht0 tbaf bas been appoiftt/d 

Home Department i^essengen 



Home 'Department Superintendent 

The King's business requireth haste. 



The Visitor's book (Form H) should designate the 
number of her Home Class, have a space in it for the de- 
scription of her territory, and contain instructions and 
suggestions. The first part of the book should contain a 
^' Record of Visitation/* in which is put down the date 
of each visit, the names of those visited, with their 
street and number, a minute of facts for the pastor, 
another column for the superintendent, and still another 
for other pastors, superintendents and teachers. The 
next portion of the book should be devoted to the tran- 
scription of the quarterly reports of the Home Class 
members, as gathered from the report-collection envel- 
opes or Home Class report cards. The last part of 
the book should be given to the quarterly reports, show- 
ing the number of the class at the beginning of the 
quarter, the number added, the number transferred to 
the main school, or lost by death, discontinuance, 
removal, or by dropping out. 

The blank for the Visitor's Quarterly Report, good for 
twenty names, is as follows : — 



Home Department Requisites 



171 

Form I 



Home Department 

OF 

Sunday-School 



Home Class No, 



VISITOR'S QUARTERLY REPORT 

Quarter ending* igo Visitor, 



Names of 
Members 



ADDRESSES 



OFFER- 
INGS 



DATE OF 
VISIT 



Number of class at beginning of quarter. . 

Number added during quarter 

Number transferred to main school 

Number lost by death .... discontinuance . 

Net gain or loss 

Signed, 



. removal . 



Visitor, 

Lastly, the Home Department superintendent should 
have a record book, containing a plat of the field 
covered by the Home Department, divided into districts 
corresponding with the number of Home Classes. One 
section of it should contain the names of the Visitors 
with a description of the territory to which each is 
assigned. Another should be devoted to the member- 
ship of the Home Classes, with the name and address of 
each member, date of joining, and blank for adding the 



172 The Home Department 

date of discontinuance, with its cause. A third portion 
should be given to the quarterly reports of the Home 
Classes, and a fourth to the quarterly reports of the 
Home Department to the school. Such a book is 
issued under Form K. 

The prices of these various requisites have been given 
at the conclusion of the first one mentioned (Form A) on 
page 164 A treasurer's book is so simple an affair that it 
has not been deemed best to publish one. All the 
necessary account keeping, as a rule, should be done by 
the treasurer of the school. 



IX 

DIFFICULTIES OF THE HOME DEPARTMENT 

Before attempting the work the fact should be recog- 
nized that the Home Department has its difficulties. It 
cannot be started as easily as a loose stone on a moun- 
tainside, which needs only a slight push of the foot in 
order to go bounding down the slope. After it is started 
it is not self-perpetuating and automatic in its operations, 
but needs persistent and careful attention. No great 
results in any undertaking are to be expected without 
due effort. That they be not soon turned out of the 
way, those who engage in the work of establishing a 
Home Department should understand that it involves 
labor, self-sacrifice, discouragements, disappointments. 
They should not enter upon the task without resolving to 
continue in spite of them. The determination to succeed 
in defiance of all difficulties is a guaranty of success. 
Taking up the work in an experimental way will surely 
result in failure if too many discouragements are met 
with at the outset. 

It is well before beginning to have some conception of 
the obstacles to be overcome. Those obstacles are not 
always the same in different places. In one locality it 
may be easy to inaugurate it, and in another it may be 
an up-hill undertaking. Inasmuch as one place is not 
the duplicate of any other, it is quite possible that one 
may have to encounter peculiar impediments which 

'73 



174 1''^^ Home Department 

others have not had to remove. Still human nature in 
various places is so much the same that certain hin- 
drances may be looked for. If the full list be not real- 
ized, there will be so much to be thankful for ; if it be 
exceeded, there will be need for just so much more faith 
and effort. The common difficulties may be classified 
as follows : — 

I. In starting. — It usually is harder to get anything 
started than it is to keep it going after it has been suc- 
cessfully inaugurated. From such a beginning it gains a 
momentum which will carry it on through many subse- 
quent depressing experiences. But it must prove itself 
to be of value before it will win sufficient loyalty in times 
of discouragement. Therefore the necessity of begin- 
ning with resolution and strength. In starting there are 
difficulties with respect to : — 

I. Adoption. The great trouble is to get it thor- 
oughly and enthusiastically adopted. If the school 
moves strongly in the matter, there is every reason to 
hope for success. If it takes it up doubtfully and half- 
.heartedly, whether anything is accomplished will depend 
upon the fortunate results of its first efforts. The things 
which militate against its adoption are : — 

( I ) Disinclination for new work. There is always a 
feeling against entering upon new work. The Sunday- 
school itself at the beginning had to struggle against it ; 
the Christian Endeavor Society had to meet it; the 
Young Men's Christian Association had to overcome it. 
In these days, especially, with the multiplication of 
societies within the church and the Sunday-school, there 
is a good deal of reluctance to undertake any new organ- 
ization; and there is considerable justification for it. 



Difficulties of the Home Department 175 

The objection is likely to be raised that already there is 
more machinery than the church can run. The missionary 
societies for old and young, the temperance bands, the 
brigades, the guilds, the clubs — what opportunity is there 
for anything more? Where are the workers to be ob- 
tained for additional work ? If the Home Department will 
not be a positive help in the work of the church, then it 
should not be adopted; if it be a peculiarly effective 
means, then it should be undertaken no matter what else 
the church may be doing. Machinery that will help 
should be made to help ; the useless machinery should 
be dispensed with. In the case of each new proposition 
which is brought before the church the question should 
be, Is this work which we ought to do ? If it is, then 
let the adoption be hearty. There is less danger of 
doing too much work than of doing too little. An over- 
worked church is a rare sight. 

But the disinclination will be more pronounced in 
those churches which have few societies than in those that 
have many. Those who are doing but little hate to 
pledge themselves to do more. In some churches two 
objections always bar the way to attempting anything out 
of the usual. The first is, " We never tried that ; *' and 
the second is, ^^ We once tried that and failed." There 
are too many who are satisfied with simply coming to 
hear the minister once or twice on Sundays, and attend- 
ing the mid-week prayer-meeting. The world will never 
be won for Christ in that way. Many a church has run 
out altogether because it did not have energy enough to 
recruit from the world. The Home Department is to 
help the church to add to its ranks from the parish in 
which it is situated. 



176 The Home Department 

(2) Incredulity respecting the work proposed. The 
plan of the Home Department is so simple that it is no 
wonder that to many it seems incapable of accomplishing 
all that is represented. "I-don't-believe-it-can-do-so- 
much " has killed many a proposed undertaking. The 
Saviour himself was unable to do many mighty works in 
Nazareth because of the unbelief of the people there. 
They could have sent to Capernaum and found out 
whether Jesus was the mighty miracle-worker or not that 
he was said to be, but they did nothing of the kind, but 
simply said, " Is not this the carpenter's son?'* If any 
of this unbelief is met with, let a committee be appointed 
to examine into the Home Department and report. Do 
not let the undertaking be strangled through ignorant 
unbelief when knowledge is so easily gained. 

(3) The difficulty of securing a good superintendent. 
In some cases that is a serious obstacle. Better delay a 
little than choose some one just to fill the place. The 
one who is to take charge of the Home Department 
should be a person of some executive ability and who is 
willing to devote to it considerable time. Such a one 
may not be found offhand. When found he (or she) 
may not be ready at first to take the position. Let the 
matter be thoroughly considered. Let the pastor and the 
superintendent of the Sunday-school talk it over with 
the one selected. In nine cases out of ten the position 
will finally be taken. But if a refusal be given, why, try 
another ! Some one can be secured by due effort — 
perhaps the very one most adapted for the work but 
apparently the least likely to enter upon it. 

(4) The difficulty of securing good helpers. That 
hindrance is one of the first to occur to those wishing to 



Difficulties of the Home Department 177 

establish a Home Department. The effective workers 
are already deeply engaged. They are at work in the 
Sunday-school, in the Christian Endeavor Society, etc. 
In most instances they should not be asked to take on 
new work. It is a commendatory feature of the Home 
Department that it seeks to develop new workers. Look 
among the members of the church for those who are not 
actively engaged. Do not be discouraged if a full list of 
workers cannot be obtained at once. Let the Home 
Department superintendent begin with two or three Visit- 
ors, nay with one — or even with none. All the Visitors 
required will be found in time, if one is only persistent. It 
is a good plan to take a friend around on the tour of 
visitation without disclosing the fact that she is wanted 
to act as Visitor. One or two rounds will show to her how 
easy and how delightful is the task. She will then be 
ready to take it up without urging. Be patient ; some 
things have to grow ; be satisfied if even this grows but 
slowly. 

Many will object to entering upon the duties of a 
Visitor because they have had no training in Christian 
work. Unquestionably they would be better Visitors if 
they had been so trained, but it does not follow that they 
have no quaUfications on account of this lack, or that 
they should not begin. This may be the Lord's call to 
service, and that they have no right to disregard. With 
each new round of visits they will become better ac- 
quainted with their duties and better able to discharge 
them. Probably many will think that they should carry 
around a limp-covered Bible, and be able to fit an appro- 
priate text to every circumstance. Let this idea be 
gotten rid of as quickly as possible. The Visitor should 



lyS The Home Department 

not go into any home with the air of a spiritual mentor. 
Lay entirely aside any missionary manner, for people do 
not like to feel that they are regarded from the mis- 
sionary standpoint. Go into other homes as you would 
like any one to come into your own. Make each call a 
friendly one, using good sense as to making advances, 
not talking in stilted pious phrases, but in good neigh- 
borly fashion. Let a Visitor be sincere, hearty, natural, 
and she will be welcome. If she be observant and 
tactful, it will be only a short time before she will become 
a trained Christian worker. 

Suppose that after the proposition has been considered, 
the school should reject it; what then? The Home 
Department plan even then need not be given up. The 
one who has been urging it, and who believes in it, 
should establish a Home Class. Make a success of it, 
adopting all the expedients to develop an interest in its 
members elsewhere suggested. Quietly invite some of 
the church workers to a Home Class social, or get 
now one and now another to go with you on your 
rounds. Suggest to this one and to that that they repeat 
your experiment. In just this way Home Departments 
have been established, the school at last being glad to 
adopt that which at first was thought to be a chimerical 
undertaking. 

2. Canvassing. A Home Department is not started 
by a vote merely ; a membership has to be secured for 
it ; and here come in a second class of difficulties : — 

(i) Disinclination to study the Scriptures, That is 
at the bottom of many a refusal to join the Home De- 
partment. There is an aversion to any kind of study 
with some, and this in the case of the Bible is very pro- 



Difficulties of the Home Department 179 

nounced. Miss Van Valkenburgh, of Plattsburg, N. Y., 
has enumerated some of the excuses for not joining the 
Home Department which she received from business 
men. Their insincerity is manifest. One man said that 
he could not join because he had to take care of the 
baby while his wife attended the Sunday-school, and he 
had no time to study. Another would not because his 
wife went to the Sunday-school, and that was religion 
enough for the family. One declared that he did n't 
know whether there was any other world, and was per- 
fectly willing to run the risk. Another was doing two 
pious things already — he never signed notes as security, 
and never joined any secret societies ; he did not feel 
that he could do any more. One man was in too much 
trouble financially. Many "had no time"; others were 
"too tired"; some were afraid that if they made the 
promise they wouldn't keep it. One wasn't a heathen ; 
he read the Bible when he wanted to. Another was trying 
faithfully to keep the temperance pledge ; he could not 
possibly undertake anything more. Translated, these 
puerile excuses in each case meant, " I do not want to 
study the Bible." Visitors will hear just such evasions 
in almost every community. If the Visitor accepts them 
as final, her Home Class will be relatively small. Miss 
Van Valkenburgh did not accept them at all, but on the 
first call did not press the matter of joining. She simply 
explained the plan and advantages of the Home Depart- 
ment, left the Quarterly and other matter — and called 
again. In most of the cases she succeeded in obtaining 
the Home Class pledge. Many Visitors make the mis- 
take of trying to accomplish too much upon the first 
visit. They are ready to give up if they do not get an 



jgo The Home Department 

assent then. The first visit should be usually only pre- 
paratory — a visit of information. 

(2) Hostility to the Church, This obstacle is com- 
paratively rare, but still it is liable to be encountered. 
There is so much talk against the Church by orators who 
assume to speak for the laboring classes, that it would be 
strange if some were not infected by it. They have 
become venomized with the idea that the Church is only 
for the rich. Occasionally it will be found that some are 
cherishing fancied grievances. They went to church, 
and no attention was paid to them ; the pastor has never 
called upon them ; none of the church people have ever 
manifested any interest in them. Both patience and 
tact are required in dealing with such cases. See to it 
that the pastor is informed of their complaint ; get some 
of the church people to call, etc. Meantime the Visitor 
herself should visit them sufficiently often to be looked 
upon as a friend; and when that happens the rest is 
comparatively easy. 

(3) Inability to study. More people than one would 
suppose know nothing about study. It seems an easy 
thing to one who has had the requisite schooling to sit 
down and master the lesson in a Quarterly. To many, 
however, it is a prodigious undertaking. They do not 
know how to go about it. They will refuse to pledge 
themselves to do it unless the method of study is made 
very simple to them. Hence the importance of the 
Visitors being thoroughly acquainted with the lesson 
helps, so that she can show the plan upon which they 
are prepared and indicate the work which the Home 
Class member should do. Of course here comes in the 
necessity for tact ; for to point that out to some would 



Difficulties of the Home Department i8t 

be an affront, inasmuch as they are perfectly capable of 
discovering all that is needed, while in no case must 
there be an imputation of incapability. Where sug- 
gestions are given it should be with the inference of 
saving time, or of taking up those features which are of 
most importance. Some are ready frankly to admit 
their lack, but most people are sensitive and would rather 
conceal it. They should be saved any humiliation. 

(4) Unwillingness to make a pledge. Not a few shrink 
from binding themselves to anything which looks like a 
permanent obligation. Some will positively refuse to 
sign a printed pledge. It should be borne in mind by 
the Visitor that the manner of getting a thing done is not 
of so much importance as getting it done. If the study 
can be secured without a pledge, it is not necessary to 
insist upon the pledge. There are but few who will 
object to making a promise if it does not commit them 
for too long a time, but if there are any who can be led 
to do the work by not imposing any specific written 
obligation upon them, it is better, of course, to get them 
to do the work without the pledge. The majority of 
persons will work better for having made the promise, 
but it isn't wise to lose any because they are unwilling 
to make a formal agreement to study the lessons con- 
tinuously. " You will let me know beforehand when you 
want to stop, won't you, so that the Quarterly can be 
discontinued?" is a promise which none will hesitate to 
make, and yet in effect it is the same as made by all the 
rest. The Visitor should not be bound to stereotyped 
ways of doing her work. The thing of importance is to 
get the people to study the Bible — the method is of 
comparatively little consequence. 



1^2 The Home Department 

11. In Continuing. — All the difficulties are by no 
means overcome when the Home Department is success- 
fully inaugurated. No self-going, perpetual motion ma- 
chine has yet been discovered. It takes more steam to 
set a machine going than to keep it in motion after it is 
started, but it will not continue to run without fresh 
impulse. The way to make a Home Department con- 
tinuously successful is to keep putting fresh effort into it. 
The difficulties in carrying it on after it is inaugurated 
have reference to : — 

I. The workers. From various causes the corps of 
workers will lose some of its numbers. There will be : — 

(i) The unadapted. At the first it cannot always be 
told whether one will succeed as a Visitor or not. Inas- 
much as the regular rounds of visitation are far apart, it 
cannot immediately be determined whether one will do 
well or not. Frequently it happens that one who does 
not show much adaptation for the work upon the first two 
or three rounds proves in the end to be admirably quali- 
fied for it. So the Home Department superintendent 
should not be too hasty in deciding against a Visitor, but 
should carefully watch her work, going with her when it 
is possible, that she may give her the benefit of her 
example and counsel. But when it is fully evident that 
the Visitor is unfitted for her work, the best way is to let 
her go as speedily as possible. Better do without a 
Visitor than have a blunderer or one who has no heart in 
her work. 

(2) The discouraged, A Visitor may be unnecessarily 
discoutaged. She may think that she is not succeeding 
because she has not enrolled a large number in her 
district. Try to show her that success is not to be 



Difficulties of the Home Department ^83 

estimated wholly by numbers. Let her be faithful over 
the few, and the Lord will reward her by giving her 
oversight over more. Too many are impatient to have 
a large class without delay. A small class will grow if 
the Visitor is faithful to it, and unremitting and judicious 
in her canvassing. The superintendent should try to 
encourage her. Help her to see the true importance of 
what she is doing. Give her a little aid ; go with her ; 
suggest new expedients ; pray with and comfort her. A 
good worker may be saved to the Home Department. 
A prayer and conference meeting of the Visitors is a 
good antidote for discouragement. 

(3) The tired. When one is tired the best remedy 
is rest. Don't lose a good Visitor because she is tired, 
but see that she has a respite. If she is poor, see that 
she is sent off somewhere where she can have a good, 
refreshing vacation. Consult with the pastor about her, 
and let the matter be quietly done so as not to call 
public attention to her as an object of charity. When 
she returns she will enter into the work the more heartily 
for the good which has been shown to her. Only in a 
very few cases will this need to be done, but in them the 
help ought not to fail. As to others, let them under- 
stand that they are released only for a little while. 
Utilize their absence by " breaking in " new workers, 
and so enlarging the corps that more territory may be 
occupied. A new Visitor will succeed better after having 
visited the members of a Home Class already established. 

2. The students. It cannot be expected that a 
Home Class will keep full after it is started. Various 
causes will operate to deplete it. There will be : — 

(i) Discontinuance, Not all who begin will con- 



184 The Home Department 

tinue. In spite of all the efforts of the Visitor there 
will be instances where the study of the lessons will be 
dropped. Though so little is exacted by the pledge, 
even that little there are many who are not willing to 
render. Some will begin enthusiastically enough, but 
will soon tire of the experiment. They will be offset by 
others who will begin with reluctance, but who will 
become more and more interested. The good judgment 
of the Visitor must guide her as to urging those to go on 
who wish to fall out of the line. It is neither wise to 
give them up too readily nor to labor with them too 
much to persevere. If compelled to let them go, let it 
be with the understanding that at some future time they 
may be asked to join again. Something may occur to 
make them place a higher value on Bible study. Visit 
them once in a while in order to keep the connection 
open. 

(2) Joining the school. Many a good Home Class 
has lost almost if not quite all its membership this way. 
The desire to be where the lessons are discussed has 
taken strong hold of those who for a while have been 
studying them alone. If the Visitor looks solely at her 
class record, this is discouraging ; if she considers the 
object of the Home Department, she will rejoice — and 
set to work to get up another class. Her class should 
be but as a vestibule of the Sunday-school — the less 
time its members stay in it the better. Her effort should 
be directed towards keeping up the supply. She should 
consider her labors eminently successful if they result in 
continually adding to the membership of the school. 

(3) Moving away. In many localities, especially in 
the larger cities, families are transient in their stay. 



Difficulties of the Home Department 185 

They remain so long as profitable employment lasts, and 
then go elsewhere in search of new opportunities. In 
some places, therefore, the Home Department is likely 
to lose as many through removal as from all other causes 
combined, unless the Visitors are very watchful. They 
should be on such intimate terms with their Home Class 
members that a family would not think of going away 
without letting them know. Still a household might slip 
away during the three months' interval of visitation, 
owing to some sudden necessity or change of occupation 
without giving any notice. In such cases the new 
address should be discovered, if possible, and the sug- 
gestion should be made by letter that the Home Class 
relationship can be continued by correspondence, or, if 
a Home Department is connected with the church near 
to which they have gone, they can be commended to its 
care and fellowship. The Visitor should never suffer a 
Home Class student to drop his membership through 
removal, if she can help it. If, in any case, there seems 
to her a Hkelihood of one's going away, let the sugges- 
tion incidentally be dropped that if such a thing should 
happen, the membership still could be kept up. Indeed, 
it is easy to see how the continued interest shown in one 
who has been obliged to go into some new locality would 
affect him more even than constant visitation in the old 
place. A kindly note on sending the Quarterly and the 
new report card, telling the things of interest with 
relation to the Home Class, the Home Department and 
the school, would come to be prized beyond measure. 
Fidelity in looking after removals yields large returns for 
the Master. 

(4) Death, There is no circle which is not liable to 



ig6 '^^ Home Department 

be broken into by death. The dearer to each other are 
its members the closer will they draw together on account 
of this rupture. Let the Visitor see that all the other 
members of the Home Class are notified of the death 
and of the time and place of the funeral. If it be 
possible, they should attend and be seated together, thus 
emphasizing their tie toward the dead and toward each 
other. Before them will be a powerful illustration of the 
value of Bible study and of that preparation for eternity 
which it is meant to instigate. It will hardly be possible 
for the members to come away without feeUng that the 
Home Class is of more importance than they had yet 
deemed it to be. There will be quiet resolutions to 
make more of the opportunity for study which it gives ; 
to enter into that Christian life to which it is an invita- 
tion; to take up the duties which that life enjoins. 
After that will be the Visitor's opportunity to speak a 
word in season. And if, seated by the casket, the Visitor 
knows, as in some cases she will, that to the one who 
occupies it she has opened the door of life, and feels 
sure that that one has gone from the Home Class here 
to the great Teacher above, how grateful she will feel that 
such a privilege has been given her ! 

The attempt has not been made to enumerate all the 
difficulties which may be encountered by those who wish 
to begin a Home Department. It would be useless to 
endeavor to do so, for each one probably would be able 
to give some special difficulty met by him which would 
not be included in the list. They, however, represent 
the principal ones ; to be fortified against them is to be 
fortified against others. Looking them over they do not 



Difficulties of the Home Department 187 

appear to be very formidable. They surely should not 
prevent the attempt to do the Master's work in this 
portion of his vineyard. It will not be the difficulties 
which will thwart the establishment of a Home Depart- 
ment, but a lack of consecration, resolution and per- 
sistence. What has been done in so many places can be 
done in any new place, with the same means and the 
same determination to succeed. It is yours to do the 
work ; it is God's to give it his blessing. Being co- 
laborers with God, there is no possibility of failure if we 
but do what is our duty. '' Let us not be weary in well- 
doing : for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." 
Mary Moall enumerates some of the hindrances, 
and thus tells how to overcome them. 

1. It is more difficult to secure Visitors. 
Make the classes larger. 

2. People are more indifferent about joining. 

After you have invited them,^ ask the superintendent and 
pastor to do so as well. 

3. People are often less interested in the study of the 
lessons. 

Go and study with them. 

4. They do not appreciate the Visitor's calls. 

Be sure to send the right Visitor. Change if necessary. 

5. They would rather visit the park or lake or country on 
Sunday, than to study at home. 

Ask them to study five minutes each week-day. 

6. All have opportunity to attend the Sunday-school. 
Urge them to do so^ but win them to the Hom.e Depart- 
ment until they do. 

7. The members are often not at home when the Visitor 
calls. 

// is not too far for the Visitor to call again. 



1 88 The Home Department 

8. Members are careless about contributing. 
Purchase a Home Department library. 

9. The population changes continually. 
Make a house-to-house visitation yearly, 

10. The superintendent fails to bring the work of the 
department before the Sunday-school. 

Call for the reports. 



INDEX 



Aged, The, 66. 

Barnes, Mrs. J. H., 24, 25. 

Beard, A. F., d.d., 10. 

Beecher, ]Miss M. A., 20, 26. 

Belsey, Hon. F. F., 49. 

Bible, Home Department pro\4des for 

Associated study of, 56. 

General study of, 55. 

Systematic study of, 55. 
Binghamton, Report from, 24. 
Blake, Hon. S.H., 15. 
Blind, Home Department for, 151. 
Bohemia, Home Class in, 49. 
Brooklyn, Home Departments in, 44. 
Brotherhood, Andrew and Philip, 129. 
Burton, Rev. R. E., iii. 
Butler, Article by Mrs. Allen, Secre- 
tary, II, 17. 

Canvassing; its infrequency, 21. 

By Visitors, 22. 

By Districts, 23. 

For the Sunday-school, 122. 

Quarterly, 24. 

The Town, 121. 
Christian Endeavor, Beginning of, 41. 
Church attendance, 106. 
Circular in, 1882, 23. 
Clark, F. E., d.d., 42. 
Clarke, A. W., d.d., 49. 
Classes, Home. See Home Classes. 
Classes, Neighborhood. See Neigh- 
borhood Classes. 
Classes, special, 125. 
Congregational Sunday-school and 
PubHshing Society, 28. 

Adoption of Home Department 
by, 28, 29. 

Copyright permissions, 43, 159. 

Share in introducing, 36. 



Contributions, Obtaining of, 78. 
Convention, International, 1881, 14. 
1893. 48. 
Convention, World's, 1889, 47. 
1893, 48. 
Craig, Mrs. Charles, Rockford.Ill., 85. 
Cronk, Catharine S., Atlanta, Ga., 

144. 
Crosbie, Rev. W., 49. 

Danforth, Hon. Edward, 23, 27. 
DiflSculties of Home Department, 173- 
t88. 
In starting, 174-181. 
In continuing, 182-188. 
Dike, S. W., ll.d.. Introduction of 
Home Department by, 30. 

Letter to Vermont Chronicle, 30. 
Articles by, 46. 
Drake, J. F., 27. 
Dummer, J. N., 46. 
Duncan, W. A., Originator of Home 
Class, 8-10. 

First steps in introduction, 10-21. 
His labors in pushing Home De- 
partment, 46, 47. 
Introduction of Home Depart- 
ment abroad, 48. 
Telephone Home Departments, 

146. 
Working of Home Department in 
New York, 39. 

Goodman, Prof. M. M., Lvnchburg, 

Va., 79. 
Griswold, Miss Grace E., 46. 

Hall, Rev. C. W., Elbowoods. N. D., 

70. 
Hall, W H., 46. 
Hall, W W., Brooklyn, N. Y., 86, 130. 



X89 



IQO 



Index 



HaUock, Rev. G. B. F., 47» 112. 
Haskell, Mrs. J., Dixon, 111., 137. 
Home, The, 63. 
Home Classes, 103. 

Choice of name, happy, 18. 

Correspondence Classes, 105. 

Development of, 21. 

Family -Classes, 103. 

Final development, 41. 

First, as Neighborhood Classes, 
12, 18. 

First organized effort for Sunday- 
school extension, 8. 

First printed report of at Emporia, 
Kansas, 27. 

First steps in uitrcduction, 10. 

Gain through the Home Depart- 
ment, 36. 

Hospital Home Class, 154. 

Individual Classes, 103. 

Made known at Chautauqua, 
27. 

Mention of, in Peloubet's Quar- 
terly, 21. 

Neighborhood Classes, 104. 

New phase of, through the Home 
Department, 39. 

Obstacles to gro\\i:h of, 42. 

Origin of, 8, 41. 

Recognition of, by main school, 

13- 
Summary of progress, 29. 
Sunday- School Extension Society, 
A, 17. 
Home Department, as outhned by Dr. 
Dike, 30. 

Adoption of, 43. 

A help in country parishes, 

69. 
A help to the isolated, 70. 
Aims to reach indi\^duals, 60. 

1. The Shut-ins, 60. 

2. The Shut-outs, 62. 
Aims to reach the Home, 63 . 
Aims to reach the Town, 65. 
And Church Attendance, 106. 
And the Pastor, 106- 115. 



Home Dept.— Cont'd. 

As adopted by Dr. Duncan, 39. 

Circular for the Homes, 165-167. 

Difficxilties of, 173-188. 

Dr. Dimning's part in launch- 
ing, 36. 

Explanatory Circular, 159-165. 

Granting privilege of, to other de- 
ncmanations, 37. 

How m.ade up, 40. 

In summer, 64. 

In winter, 63. 

International Association. See In- 
ternational Home Department 
Association. 

Its failure as a movement, 38. 

Its improvements upon Home Class, 
35. 36. 

Large Departments, 84-87 . 

Members of, enrolled by denomi- 
nations, 45. 

Messenger Service, 124. 

Methods of, 11 6- 143. 
Coimty, 119. 
How to Organize, 140. 
Illustrated, 130. 

International and National, 116. 
Secxiring Workers, 130. 
Members, 131. 
Faithful Study, 133. 
Work, 137. 
State, 117. 

Sunday-school, The, 122. 
Town, 120. 

Number of QuarterUes published, 

45- 
Of East Chicago, Ind., 81. 
Of Throop Ave., Brooklyn, N. Y., 

83. 
Organization of, 88-105. 
Outfit for, 164. 
Pastor's Aid Society, A, 113. 
Place in School, 89, 90. 
Plan reformed by Dr. Hazard, 40. 
Privileges of Members of, 89. 
Purpose of, 31, 53-87- 
Reformation of, 40. 



Index 



191 



Home Dept . — Cont'd. 
Requisites, 158-172. 
Share of Congregational Sunday- 
School and Publishing Society 
in introducing, 36. 
Superintendent of, 91-98. 
Unique Departments, 144-156. 
Visitation by means of, 74, 75. 
Visiting, 107. 
Hough, Timothy, 46. 
Hunt, Rev. A. G., Aberdeen, S. D., 
69. 

Idea, A Texas, 153. 
India, Home Department in, 50. 
International Home Department As- 
sociation, organization and purpose, 
50, 116. 

Made a Department of Interna- 
tional Sunday-school work, 51. 
Roster of Officers, i. 
InvaUds, The, 67. 
Isolated, The, 68. 

Jacobs, B. F., 51. 

Junior (and Primary) Home Depart- 
ment Class, 152. 

Kay, Miss Mary L., Dixon, 111., 84. 
Kennedy, Minnie E., 68. 
King's Daughters, 129. 

Large Departments, 84-87. 
Lesson Helps, 105, 164. 
library, The, 124. 
London Sunday- School Union 

Adoption of Home Department 
by, 48. 

Work in India, 50. 
Loomis, Miss C. L., 140. 

Members, securing, 131. 
Membership, 75. 
Membership Card, 167. 
Membership Certificate, 169. 
Membership RoU, 126. 



Messenger's Certificate, 170. 
Messenger Service, 124, 169. 
Metcalf, Rev. R. D., 72. 
Methods, 11 6- 143. 

County, 119. 

Illustrated, 130-143. 

International and National, 116. 

State, 117. 

Sunday-school, 122. 

Town, 120. 
Moall, Mary, 187. 

Mogg, C. E., D.D., III. 

Mothers, 61, 71. 

Mothers' Home Department, 155. 

Neighborhood Classes, called Home 
Classes, 12. 

Limitations of, 18. 
Newspaper, A Sunday-school, 16. 
New York State, Home Departments 
in, 46. 

Reports of, for 1882, 1883, 19, 20, 

24. 
Reports of, for 1884, 26, 
" " " 1894, 44- 
Northfield, Mass., Home Depart- 
ment, 126-130. 

Packard, E. N., dd., 114. 
Parish, The, 72. 

Pastors, Helped by Home Depart- 
ment, 71, 106-109. 

Helping the Home Department, 
109-111. 

Testimonies of, 111-115. 
Paton, J. B., LL.D., 49. 
Peloubet's Quarterly, 21. 
Phillips, J. L., DJD., 50. 
Pilgrim Teacher, The, 34. 
Place, Mrs. Louis, 133. 
PoUce Home Department, 144. 
"Pomucka," Bohemian Leaflet, 50. 
Porter, Rev. J. S., 49. 
Primary and Jimior Home Depart- 
ment Class, 152. 
Prison Home Departments, 149. 



192 



Index 



Ray, Charles Wayne, Crawford, Neb., 

78. 
Recognition Days, 126. 
Records, 123. 
Report Card, 168. 
Report-collection Envelope, 168. 
Results, 79. 
Reynolds, William, 51. 

Secretary, 120. 

SeK-Support, 83. 

Shut-ins, The, 60. 

Shut-outs, The, 62. 

Socials, 125. 

Stebbins, Mrs. Flora B., 126. 

St. John, E. P., 46. 

Stockbridge, N. Y., Town of, 45. 

Study, Securing faithful, 133-137. 

Summer Home Department in, 64. 

Sunday-school Leaflet No. 6, 12. 

Sunshine Bands, 126. 

Superintendent 

His appointment, 91. 

His duties, 94. 

His qualifications, 91. 

Record Book, 171. 
Sutherland, Rev. W. R., Assiniboia, 
Can., 73, 74. 

Taylor, Rev. J. S., Dallas, Tex., 153. 
Telephone Departments, 146. 
Terhime, Mrs. Julia M., Brooklyn, 

N.Y., 155- 
Thorp, Rev. Willard B., 115. 
Transients, The, 63. 



Vincent, Bishop John H., Endorse- 
ment of Home Classes, in 1S81, 
i5> 16. 
Advocacy of, in 1885, 57. 
Visiting, A help to Pastors, 107. 
Visitors, 98. 

Aid to Church and Sunday- 
school, 109. 
Development of, 25, 26. 
Duties, Their, 99. 
QuaUfications, Their, 98 . 
Quarterly Report of, 171. 
Record Book, 170. 
Records kept by, 123. 
Securing, 130. 

Transformation of Canvassers in- 
to, 39. 

Walker, Mrs. J. A., Denver, Col., 

151. 
Watoola, Ala., Home Department at, 

68. 
Winter, Home Department in, 63. 
Woman's Sunday-School Mission Aid 
Association, Formation of, 10. 
Mention of, in Peloubet's Quar- 
terly, 21. 
Plan for Yearly Canvass by, 

19. 
Special feature. Home Class 
Work, 22, 
Work, Securing faithful, 137. 



Zimmerman, Jeremiah, d.d., 14, 15- 



DEC 1 1906 



11 Thomson Park Onve 



